Franklin County EOC Technology Upgrade

Franklin County, Ohio is seeking proposals for voluntary employee benefit programs—Short-Term Disability (STD) and Long-Term Disability (LTD) plan administration, plus ID Theft Protection, Legal Services, and Pet Insurance—serving the Franklin County Cooperative Health Improvement Program across 40+ agencies with approximately 6,500 eligible employees, with proposals due July 1, 2026. This is a multi-product RFP covering disability insurance administration and voluntary ancillary benefits; the source materials span multiple attachments (questionnaires, pricing forms, references templates, and vendor Q&A addenda) with effective contract implementation targeted for January 1, 2027.

The scope encompasses STD and LTD plan administration with operational requirements including designated claims units, annual communications (minimum four training sessions), member satisfaction surveys, and comprehensive claims processing across multiple benefit designs. Vendors must provide ID Theft Protection, Legal Services (covering Franklin County and six adjacent counties with 48–72 hour appointment availability), and Pet Insurance offerings. Vendors may submit proposals for any combination of the five products; missing lines of coverage impact scoring. Subcontracting is permitted if the bidding vendor holds and administers the master contract. The County requires all pricing net of commissions; vendors must submit best and lowest offers without expectation of further negotiation. Implementation or technology credits offered must represent best offers. Vendors must confirm ability to accept all current benefit volumes without evidence of insurability, waive pre-existing condition exclusions, support multiple payors within the Cooperative structure, and accommodate potential member-employer expansion. All services must be performed within the United States with no offshore work permitted. The incumbent provider is Metropolitan Life Insurance Company under RFP #2020-06-35 (contract term through December 31, 2026).

Questions were due September 23, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. EST; a pre-proposal conference was held September 18, 2025 at 1:00 p.m. EST via Microsoft Teams. Sealed proposals are due July 1, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. EDT, with virtual opening via Microsoft Teams. Vendors must submit comprehensive responses to a 235-question RFP questionnaire, detailed pricing documentation, references (minimum two current clients plus one terminated client from the last 18 months), subcontractor disclosures, account management team information, and performance guarantee proposals. The County intends to award one contract but reserves discretion to award multiple contracts. Evaluation includes three phases: compliance review, full evaluation on completeness, compliance, firm background, communications, member experience, services, reporting, implementation, pricing, references, and local preference (additional points for no offshore presence), with optional vendor interviews. Vendors must maintain $1,000,000 general liability, $2,000,000 umbrella/excess, $5,000,000 cyber insurance, and $1,000,000 professional liability coverage.