Workers' Compensation Third Party Administrator

Sarasota County, Florida is issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP #262840MM) for a Workers' Compensation Third Party Administrator to manage the County's self-insured workers' compensation claims program across all County departments and Elected Official offices, excluding the Tax Collector and Sheriff's Office. The procurement seeks comprehensive claims administration services including administrative functions, claims handling, banking and reconciliation services, data access and reporting, and staffing requirements to serve a public entity employer with a minimum of 2,000 employees. Qualified proposers must hold a 6-20 Resident All Lines Adjuster License from the Florida Department of Financial Services Division of Worker's Compensation and demonstrate substantial workers' compensation claims administration experience. Preferred qualifications include experience administering workers' compensation programs for Florida public entity employers with at least 2,000 employees within the past five years, expertise with "Heart & Lung" presumption claims for firefighters and law enforcement, and knowledge of pharmacy benefit management and pain management strategies. The County will evaluate proposals based on a scoring scale, with presentations required if estimated annual costs exceed $350,000 or if scoring margins are five points or less between top proposers. The RFP was posted on March 16, 2026, with a proposal due date of April 3, 2026, and the evaluation and award schedule is available at https://procurement.opengov.com/portal/scgov. Short-listed proposers may be required to attend presentations or interviews either in Sarasota, Florida or virtually at the County's discretion.

This procurement does not include local or American business preferences due to grant funding requirements, effectively restricting set-aside designations for disadvantaged enterprises. Proposers must maintain professional liability insurance of at least $1,000,000 per claim and submit a recent SAS 70 or similar audit report demonstrating financial and operational stability. The County maintains excess workers' compensation insurance with a $1,000,000 per occurrence retention and has self-insured its program for over thirty years, indicating an established infrastructure and claims management history that the selected administrator must integrate with seamlessly. No incumbent vendor or current contractor information is specified in the solicitation documents. The anticipated initial contract term is three years, with pricing to be submitted using the pricing table in OpenGov; however, the specific budget range or award value is not disclosed in the available documentation, though the presentations trigger threshold of $350,000 annually provides an indication of expected costs.