Emergency Extension: Credit Monitoring

The state of Illinois, through the Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS), is procuring an emergency extension of a contract for credit monitoring services for a subset of Medicaid providers affected by a recent data breach involving personally identifiable information. HFS had originally entered into a one-year contract with Equifax Consumer Services LLC, with a term from June 1, 2021 to August 29, 2021, at a total estimated cost of $342,200. HFS is now requesting an extension of the contract until December 31, 2021 to allow more time for providers to enroll in the credit monitoring services and for Equifax to continue providing customer support during the enrollment period. The extension will not incur any additional costs. The justification for the extension is that the original 90-day term was insufficient to meet the enrollment needs given the sensitive nature of the data breach. HFS contacted three vendors but selected Equifax as the only one offering a three-bureau credit monitoring package at a fixed price, which was the most cost-effective solution.

There are no set-aside designations or restrictions on the types of organizations that can respond to this emergency extension. The current contractor, Equifax Consumer Services LLC, is the incumbent vendor. The extension is being requested under the emergency provisions of the Illinois Procurement Code, and the proposed contract extension does not include any additional pricing terms, set asides, or funding information beyond the original $342,200 contract value.