Employee Assistance Program Benefits

Travis County Healthcare District, doing business as Central Health, is seeking proposals for an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to provide comprehensive services for its approximately 1,900 full-time employees, their spouses, and dependent children. The RFP (2510-003) requires a vendor to deliver extensive EAP services including confidential counseling resources, chemical dependency counseling, emotional support, marital/family counseling, legal assistance, and occupational/financial problem assistance. Key deliverables include 20 hours of annual onsite services, unlimited assessment and referral services, minimum three-session short-term counseling per issue, critical incident stress debriefings, legal/financial consultation services, and a "Safe-Ride" program. The evaluation criteria are weighted: ability to perform (30%), quality (20%), services (20%), cost (20%), and innovation (10%). The procurement timeline includes a pre-proposal conference on November 25, 2024, questions due by December 5, 2024, question responses by December 16, 2024, and final proposals due December 30, 2024, at 2:00 PM Central Time. The initial contract term is two years with four optional one-year renewal periods, with implementation expected by March 1, 2025.

The solicitation includes a Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) participation component, with a Combined Master Bidder List search identifying 35 HUB-certified vendors in Texas who could potentially provide EAP services. While there is no mandatory HUB set-aside, Central Health encourages good faith efforts to include certified HUB subcontractors. The current EAP provider is Deer Oaks, and the RFP requires providers to maintain bilingual communication materials and specified insurance coverage, including general liability, professional liability, cyber liability, errors and omissions, commercial auto, commercial umbrella, and workers compensation. Pricing must be provided on a per-employee-per-month basis with additional hourly rates for services beyond the core scope. Providers must be prepared to support two billing groups: Central Health (581 medical enrollees, 442 dependents) and Community Care (1,165 medical enrollees, 849 dependents). Although no specific budget is explicitly stated, the detailed requirements and comprehensive service expectations suggest a substantial contract value for the selected EAP provider.