City Employee Benefits

The City of Wheat Ridge, Colorado is issuing a Request for Proposals for comprehensive brokerage and consulting services for the City's employee insurance benefits program serving approximately 275 benefit-eligible employees. The selected consultant will serve as a strategic partner providing strategic design, implementation, evaluation, administration, and ongoing maintenance of employee benefit plans, with primary responsibilities including benefits strategy guidance, plan design optimization, cost management, regulatory compliance, and dissemination of industry best practices. The contract term is one year with four optional one-year renewal periods, with the benefits renewal occurring annually on January 1. Key deliverables and objectives include negotiating effective benefit programs, providing technical knowledge and online enrollment support, ensuring account team accessibility, offering proactive support and industry communication, and maintaining cost-effectiveness relative to competitive market standards. Required qualifications include relevant experience and expertise in employee benefits consulting, technical knowledge of benefits administration platforms, qualified assigned personnel with demonstrated expertise, and ability to support the City's current benefit offerings through United Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente, Dental Dental, VSP, CVS Caremark, The Standard life insurance, and Unum disability coverage. The evaluation process includes Phase 1 scoring based on seven criteria: ability to negotiate effective benefit programs (14 points), relevant experience and expertise (14 points), technical knowledge and online enrollment support (15 points), account team accessibility and location (14 points), qualifications of assigned personnel (14 points), proactive support and industry communication (14 points), and pricing and overall cost-effectiveness (15 points), followed by Phase 2 oral interviews scored on a 0-10 point scale. The question acceptance deadline is April 17, 2026, at 2:00 PM Mountain Time, proposals are due May 1, 2026, at 2:00 PM Mountain Time via the City's OpenGov Procurement portal, and the anticipated contract date is May 12, 2026.

The RFP does not specify set-aside designations or restrictions limiting responses to particular enterprise categories. The current benefits broker of record is Willis of Colorado (WTW), as evidenced by the executed Business Associate Agreement dated August 16, 2022, and the January 2026 renewal documentation reflecting the City's current benefit structure with medical rate increases of 11 percent, dental increases of 10 percent, and flat vision rates. The selected consultant must maintain Professional Liability/Errors and Omissions insurance of $1,000,000 per claim and $1,000,000 aggregate, Commercial General Liability of $1,000,000 per occurrence, and comply with HIPAA requirements as outlined in the Business Associate Agreement template, and all work products and deliverables become the sole property of the City prior to payment. Pricing shall remain firm for one year following acceptance, with subsequent renewal periods subject to the City's acceptance or rejection of price increase requests, limited to no more than one rate adjustment per contract term and not exceeding 10 percent of original costs. The RFP does not specify a total contract value or budget range, though payment is structured as a not-to-exceed annual amount payable monthly via invoice submission by December 20, processed within the same calendar year with payment due within thirty days of invoice receipt through Electronic Funds Transfer.