Minutes_of_Pre-Proposal_Conference.pdf

Minutes from the Pre-Proposal Conference of November 4, 2014 U.S. Embassy Ottawa, Room 210

RFP No. SCA52514R0001 Heath & Life Insurance

Introduction

The pre-proposal conference was conducted to provide prospective offerors the opportunity to understand post’s work requirements and provide clarification regarding the solicitation.

The Contracting Officer (CO) welcomed all attendees. The U.S. Embassy representatives were introduced by the CO while the Contractor representatives introduced themselves. The Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) and requiring office representative were present during the meeting to hear the questions asked and provide answers to technical matters. All questions asked during the conference along with answers provided are included in the questions and answers below. The offerors were advised that all discussions made during the meeting will not change the solicitation. If there are any changes to the solicitation, all changes will be provided through a formal written solicitation amendment. Contracting staff documented items discussed during the meeting and they are outlined in this document. A copy of the minutes of the pre-proposal conference along with the questions and answers will be posted on FedBizOpps at www.FedBizOpps.Gov. The U.S. Embassy website at http://canada.usembassy.gov/about-us/procurement.html will also provide a link to the FedBizOpps.

Deadline for additional questions after the pre-proposal conference is on or before 12 noon EST on November 5, 2014. All questions should be received no later than this date in order to receive answers.

Discussion of the Solicitation Package

1) The following items of the solicitation were highlighted.

Proposal submission due date and time will be on or before 4:00 P.M. on November 28, 2014, local time, as indicated in the solicitation cover page and SF33 block 9. Proposals shall be marked accordingly and submitted to the address provided in the solicitation cover letter. No electronic offers will be accepted.

Offerors shall submit a complete proposal by following the instructions of the solicitation. The solicitation cover letter provides the required portion of the solicitation to be completed and included in the proposal. Offerors were reminded to address all required information and submit a complete proposal.

Offerors are required to register under the System for Award Management (SAM), official federal system for contractors doing business with the U.S. Government. For registration details, refer to www.sam.gov. Offerors shall include DUNS number in their proposal.

The contract will be for base year with 4 one-year options. Offerors shall complete the pricing schedule under Section B and provide firm fixed prices for base and option years, including all taxes.

Section C provides the detailed scope of work for health & dental, life and LTD. Proposals shall contain only the benefit levels stated under Section C. Employee statistics and historical claims are provided under Section J, Exhibit A, B, C & D.

Offerors shall complete certification required under Section K and include in their proposal. If the item required is does not apply, offeror should state not applicable.

Section L provides the summary of instructions that the offeror shall follow in completing their proposal. Complete proposal must include completed forms, completed Section K, price proposal and completed Section B, and technical proposal containing all technical factors and sub-factors.

The U.S. Government will conduct price and technical evaluation of each proposal. Award of the contract will be made to the lowest priced, technically acceptable and responsible offeror in accordance with the evaluation factors described under Section M.

2) Questions raised during the meeting were discussed. The questions and applicable answers are included in the questions and answers attachment.

Questions

The attached questions were asked during the conference and received prior to the conference. Answers are being provided.

Conclusion

The conference concluded and attendees were thanked for their presence and expression of interest in serving the U.S. Government. The meeting was adjourned.

Sincerely, /signed Mary Oliver Contracting Officer

Enclosure:

Questions and Answers

Questions and Answers

1) Q: Is Trafficking in Persons (TIPS) clause applicable to this requirement?

A: Yes, FAR Clause 52.222-50, Combating Trafficking in Persons is applicable and sets government-wide requirements for preventing these practices. The U.S. Government has a zero tolerance policy towards engagement in TIP by any recipient of federal funds. Contractors are required to read the clause and ensure full compliance. Contracting Officer’s and Contracting Officer’s Representative will monitor TIP compliance throughout the life of the resultant contract.

2) Q: Employee census – we do NOT need names, but do require date of birth/age, province of residence, gender, occupation, annual earnings, dependent status (Single or Family). The demographic info in the current RFP will not allow any insurers to quote.

A: Refer to solicitation amendment A002 for Employee and OREs statistics under Section J, Exhibits A & C.

3) Q: Please confirm all to be covered are residents of Canada and primarily Canadians.

A: All employees are citizens and/or permanent residents of Canada. Mission Canada consists of U.S. Embassy Ottawa-Ontario and constituent posts located in Montreal, Calgary, Halifax, Quebec, Vancouver and Winnipeg.

4) Q: Must rates be guaranteed for 4 years? This is not possible for your current insurer, so is it required for others? Your rates will fluctuate with claims experience and demographics each 12 months. We could probably get a 15 or 24 month rate guarantee.

A: The rates for the option years must be firm fixed priced in the offer. Prices under Section B.2 are all inclusive rates. No changes will be made after the contract is signed except pursuant to the price adjustment clause under Sections B.4 (Health), B.8 (Dental), B.12 (Life) and B.16 (LTD).

5) Q: The group insurers will require actual claims experience by benefit – this will be on your last renewal report with current insurer. It should show total premiums per benefit vs. total claims paid over the past 3 years. Five years would best, but we can work with 3.

A: Refer to solicitation amendment A002 for Cumulative Historical Claims Paid under Section J, Exhibit D.

6) Any pooled health claims?

A: No.

7) Q: Claims experience for last 5 years for Life and Long Term Disability

8) Q: Are there any open LTD claims? – if so, number of claimants, their dates of birth, gender, gross and net benefit payments. Confirmation that all current claimants have been approved for the life waiver

A: Yes. As of November 4, 2014, there are 7 open LTD claims. The other information is Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and will not be released under the solicitation.

9) Q: Please provide the most active 2014 insurance policy and certificate of coverage from the current insurance carrier.

A: The documents contain confidential business information and will not be released.

10) Q: Please provide the current insurance renewal and historical renewal information from the current insurance carrier.

A: The documents contain confidential business information and will not be released.

11) Q: Please provide a more in depth census containing the following information for each employee:

a. Date of birth

b. Gender

c. Medical Tier (single, employee + spouse, employee + child(ren), family)

d. Citizenship

e. Work location

f. Salary/Earnings

g. Job title

h. Active/Retiree Status

i. Enrolled coverage levels, Medical/pharmacy, Dental, life/AD&D, LTD

j. Enrollment in the Canadian Provincial System, Yes or NO?

k. Hired before or after Feb 1st 2010?

A: Refer to solicitation amendment A002 for Employee and OREs statistics under Section J, Exhibits A & C and Exhibit B for Early Retiree statistics. Employees eligible for provincial health care may enroll however the employer does not track those enrollments.

12) Q: Please provide more detailed claim reporting from the current insurance carrier including month by month claims broken down by medical, pharmacy, vision, life/AD&D, LTD and enrolled employee lives month by month.

13) Q: Please advise of contribution strategy and if the employees or dependents contribute to the cost of the insurance premiums.

A: Refer to Sections C.1(Health & Dental), C.2.0 (Life) and C.3.0 (LTD).

14) Q: Does the United States Mission in Canada wish for their program to be compliant with the Affordable Care Act?

A: The requirements for U.S. Mission are set forth in the solicitation.

15) Q: If so, to date, the medical plan design noted will not meet the Department of Human & Health

Services definition of Minimum Essential Coverage, would bidding vendors be allowed to propose a plan design for the American staff to meet Minimum Essential Coverage?

A: Refer to the answer for Question 14.

16) Q: What is the desired effective date?

A: Post anticipates award in the first quarter of 2015.

17) Q: Do employees have the ability to elect to enroll in the Canadian Provincial System?

A: Employees eligible for provincial health care may enroll.

18) Q: If yes, does this apply to both the American and non-American staff? Please outlined who is enrolled in the provincial system on the requested census file.

A: Employees eligible for provincial health care may enroll however the employer does not track those enrollments.

19) Q: As the early retiree staff is a closed class (i.e. new hires employed after Feb 1st 2010 are not allowed to elect early retirement) is the desire to only provide coverage for retirees outside of the USA? If an early retiree is to reside in the USA, will they be moved to a domestic US based retiree program?

20) Q: In Exhibit D, please 1) provide the loss experience for the program for the period Feb 2010 – Jan

2011 for the benefit of underwriting based on a complete 5 years historical loss information perspective; and 2) for each of the 5 program years, please provide a breakout of losses by line of insurance provided (e.g. a breakout by medical (employee v. early retiree), LTD, Life, ADD, Dental, etc.)

21) Q: May we please have the claims experience by contract year for each of the last 5 years preferably detailing the nature of each claim (but excluding claimants’ personal information)?

A. If only able to provide summary information by year AND if there has been any increase in benefit limits or any increase has now been requested – please detail claims where the previous maximum benefit was paid.

B. When providing the claims experience detail, please confirm that this is pure claims excluding any administrative retention amounts.

22) Q: What are the current rates?

A: Current rates are as follows:

Premium Type

2014 Employee Premium Cost

Per Month

2014 Employer Premium Cost

Per Month

Life Insurance $.27/$1000 $0.00 Accidental Death & Dismemberment $.04/$1000 $0.00

Long Term Disability $.23100/$100* $2.28490/$100*

Health Coverage (Single) $8.92 $50.48

Health Coverage (Family) $29.73 $168.49

Dental Coverage (Single) $8.67 $49.14

Dental Coverage (Family) $19.88 $112.69

23) Q: Who is the current insurer?

A: Great-West Life Assurance Company.

24) Q: For how long has the program with the current incumbent carrier been inforce?

A: Base year plus 4 one-year options.

25) Q: May we have a copy of the current policy wording?

A: The documents contain confidential business information and will not be released. See Section C.1.9 for Brochure requirements.

26) Q: Has there been any change to the eligibility requirements in the last 5 years if so, what changed, when and why?

27) Q: Are there any material differences in the benefits requested and those insured for the last 5 years?

If yes – what changed, when and why?

28) Q: Please advise whether are any of the persons covered required to carry firearms and if so, approximately how many, and has the number materially changed in the last 5 years?

29) Q: Can a broker be involved? I understand from my industry sources that the current insurer is Great

West Life and there is no broker or consultant on the case and no commission is being paid or worked into the rates. Is it still the case that the solicitation requirement does not want any commission to be paid on this case?

A: All interested parties may submit an offer in accordance with the terms and conditions of the solicitation. Award of the contract will be made to the lowest price, technically acceptable offer.

30) Q: Can the Embassy assign a company as the agent or broker to gather quotes from the various insurance companies and sign broker of record letter.

A: No.

31) Q: 1a) We note in Section J, Exhibit D you present claims paid for 4 periods. Do any of these figures include life insurance or disability claims? If yes, show medical/dental claims, life claims and disability claims separately. If the numbers do not reflect life insurance or disability claims please provide these amounts for the 4 periods presented.

1b) While this claims information you presented in Section J, Exhibit D is important to prospective offerors it is just as important for the prospective offer to understand the size of the group for those periods and the premiums paid to the incumbent insurance company. Please provide those details.

Please do not include any confidential information, just the overall statistics for the group. As the incumbent does have access to this information competing offers would be at a disadvantage if they did not have the information.

A: Refer to solicitation amendment A002 for Employee and OREs statistics and Cumulative Historical Claims Paid under Section J, Exhibits A, C & D. Also, refer to Section J, Exhibit B.

32) Q: What is the name of the insurance company that currently provides coverage?

A: Refer to the answer for Question 23.

33) Q: What are the current rates charged for each line of coverage.

A: Refer to the answer for Question 22.

34) Q: We would like to know if you have been informed of Catastrophic cases presented last year, such as: Hemodynamics, Open Heart Surgery, Orthopedic Mayor Surgeries, Organ Transplant, Traumatic Accident, Cancer and Oncology Cases (Radio and Chemotherapy), and hospitalizations with more than 10 days.

35) Q: Questions about the interaction of the provincial health care plans that cover the employees and the coverage requested in the solicitation:

Section C.1 – Health Insurance Services states:

“The Government has determined that the prevailing practice by employers in Canada is to provide for their employees health (beyond what is provided by the provincial health care plans) and dental insurance coverage and that the cost of such supplemental insurance protection is usually borne by both the employee and the employer”.

The section goes on to further say:

“The health and dental insurance coverage protection will be representative of locally prevailing compensation practices as further described in C.1.2”.

We note that in certain medical benefits such as C.1.2.4 Professional Services and Treatment, the solicitation clearly states, “Benefits cannot exceed the difference between the actual cost of the charges and amounts that employees are entitled to apply for and receive under provincial health care plans”.

However, in other sections like C.1.2.1 Hospitalization: 100% coverage semi-private room while hospitalized. There is no mention of benefits that employees are entitled to apply for and receive under provincial health care plans.

For medical Benefits C.1 should we always assume our benefits cannot exceed the difference between the actual cost of the charges and amounts that employees are entitled to apply for and receive under provincial health care plans?

36) Q: In order to financially underwrite and provide a benefits proposal for the solicitation, our company will require the following information:

a) Copy of the current benefit booklet(s).

b) Health and Dental claims experience and rates for the last 3 years.

c) Life and LTD claims experience and rates for the last 5 years.

d) Details of any open LTD claims: date of birth, date of disability, gender, monthly benefit amount, life volume and if life waiver of premium has been approved

e) Information concerning the disabled life reserves.

f) Confirmation on the funding arrangement: Fully insured, retention of administrative services only (ASO).

g) Complete employee census information: dates of birth, gender, province of residence, occupations, salaries, class distinction (if any), coverage information (single/family) as well as those employees waiving health and dental coverage.

A: a) Electronic copy is available for enrolled users only and will not be available for public release.

b) Refer to solicitation amendment A002 for Cumulative Historical Claims Paid under Section J, Exhibit D.

c) Refer to solicitation amendment A002 for Cumulative Historical Claims Paid under Section J,

d) Refer to the answer for Question no. 8.

e) $558,348 as of July 2013.

f) The documents contain confidential business information and will not be released.

g) Refer to solicitation amendment A002 for Employee and OREs statistics under Section J, Exhibits A & C.

37) Q: Would you consider providing an extension on the proposal submission deadline of November 28, 2014, 4PM so the information our company requested can be gathered and forwarded to us and all others involved so that we can prepare and submit a proposal that meets the need and criteria outlined in the documents provided.

A: Yes. The current submission deadline of on or before 4:00 PM EST on December 17, 2014 will be extended to on or before 4:00 PM EST on January 15, 2015. Refer to solicitation amendment A002.