Employee Background Screening Service for Harris Health

Harris Health System, a political subdivision of the State of Texas located in Harris County, is issuing a Request for Proposals to procure employee background screening services through the Euna portal. The procurement seeks qualified vendors to provide comprehensive background screening services for approximately 2,100 pre-employment candidates and 100 post-employment candidates annually, including criminal history reports, social media screening, sex offender and child abuse registry checks, Social Security number verification, employment and education verification, professional licensure verification, healthcare compliance searches (federal exclusion lists and state Medicaid exclusion lists), and compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act requirements. Vendors must meet a minimum qualification requirement of having at least one current client to whom they provide pre-employment background screening services for at least 2,000 candidates annually and must provide 72-hour turnaround time for local background checks (Harris County and contiguous counties) and no more than five business days for non-local checks. The evaluation committee will score proposals based on qualifications (30 percent), solution (40 percent), and pricing (30 percent), with vendors required to address technical requirements including integration capabilities with PeopleSoft human resources information system by the August 1, 2026 implementation date, data security protocols, compliance procedures, training programs, and dedicated support resources. A pre-proposal conference is scheduled for April 10, 2026, at 2:00 PM via Microsoft Teams, with written questions due by April 24, 2026, proposals due May 4, 2026, at 2:00 PM CDT, vendor selection anticipated for May 15, 2026, and contract execution by June 25, 2026, with services commencing August 1, 2026.

The contract does not specify set-aside designations for disadvantaged enterprises, though vendors are required to complete a Subcontractor Listing Form identifying any Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) and Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) certifications and Section 3 program status. Harris Health currently uses Carco/Precheck as the incumbent vendor for these services, and all proposed vendors must demonstrate integration capability with the existing PeopleSoft human resources information system. Vendors must maintain Professional/Errors & Omissions Liability insurance of $1,000,000 per occurrence and aggregate, obtain certificates of insurance naming Harris County as an Additional Insured, comply with HIPAA requirements, and execute a Business Associate Agreement if accessing protected health information. The initial contract term is 12 months beginning August 1, 2026, with four optional one-year renewal periods, with pricing increases not to exceed the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land. The current budget is $1,000,000, subject to change based on funding availability, with contract awards potentially made to multiple vendors at Harris Health's discretion based on best value in accordance with Texas law.