Bexar County Texas
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
AMENDMENT #1
RFP-26-07-089-SVC
Collection Agency and Early Out Services
Due: 2:00 pm Friday August 25, 2006
Fernicia.smart@uhs.sa.com
AMENDMENT #1
The purpose of this Amendment #1 is to respond to offeror questions. Offerors are required
to sign this amendment acknowledging receipt and return a faxed copy to the UHS
Purchasing Department. The Purchasing Department fax number is (210) 358-9106.
____________________________________
Company Name
____________________________________
Vendor Signature
Date
Vendor Questions
RFP-26-07-089-SVC
Patient Business Services (PBS)
CMA/Transplant
Is the original term of the contract 1 or 3 years?
Three (3) Years
Are the Carelink, Community Medicine, and UHS Transplant Drug Billing numbers separate from or a part of the
Patient Business Services totals?
Separate
Can we correctly assume that the “extended business office” for early out services is a first party program to be
done in the name of UHS?
Yes for Patient Business Service
Does not apply for CMA/Transplant
When will the contract be awarded?
Approximately October or November
When is the expected contract start date?
We anticipate December 2006
How many vendors are currently providing these services?
Two (2)
Who are the incumbents?
Datasearch and CBE for PBS
Datasearch for CMA/Transplant
How long has each incumbent been providing these services?
Dat2005rch at least seven (7) years
CBE three (3) Years
What is the original term of the current contract?
December 2003-November 2005
Has it gone full term?
Yes
How many options were available to UHS to extend the current contract?
One (1) and UHS is utilizing that option at this time.
Have they all been exercised?
Yes
Why is the contract out to bid?
The contract is expiring
What fees is UHS currently paying for each account type and category, including litigation if authorized?
Will not disclose this information
What kind of liquidation or return has UHS received under the current contract for early out services and for bad
debt services?
PBS has a 12% collections rate on both services.
CMA/Transplant 10.5%
What internal collections does UHS attempt on accounts initially before forwarding to the agency?
PBS response-Self pay we send out one (1) statement, they then roll to early out. Bad debt (self pay
after insurance, we send 4 statements, prior to transferring to bad debt.)
CMA/Transplant response – one (1) statement, 90 days no pay goes to collection.
Will litigation services be authorized on qualified bad debt accounts?
Probably not…it will be case by case agreed upon UHS Legal Department.
Upon a new contract being awarded, will UHS be moving accounts from the current vendor(s) to the newly
awarded vendor(s) as a one-time initial placement?
Only new accounts will be placed, existing agencies will keep their inventory until exhausted.
If yes, please provide the following information:
The total number of accounts
The total dollar value of accounts
The average account balance
The average age of all accounts to be moved
Does not apply
Can UHS confirm whether they believe the volume and value of accounts placed from 7/05 thru 6/06 will be near
the same volume and value of accounts forecasted to be placed on an annual basis under the new contract, at least
for the first year? If material changes are forecasted, please provide further information.
UHS anticipate no charge in our payor mix and anticipate the same volume
Will an oral presentation or a site visit be part of UHS’s selection process?
No
In the scoring section, the items add up to 70 points total; is that correct?
The fees are considered 30% and there is a formula that is utilized within the Health System to
determine the award to the bidder.
Question 3n refers to FTC guidelines and regulations. Does this question intend to refer to FDCPA guidelines and
regulations?
Yes: THE FAIR DEBT COLLECTION PRACTICES ACT As amended by Public Law 104-208, 110
Stat.3009 (September 30, 1996)
In referencing section I. 1, will business also include self pay after insurance? What is the current liquidation
rate of
this portfolio? How is liquidation measured?
CMA/Transplant-Yes, self pay after insurance is included. Liquidation is 10.5%
PBS-Yes, Collections for early out and self pay are both 12% of placements
In referencing section I.2, will business include “True” self pay? What is the current liquidation rate of this
portfolio? How is liquidation measured?
These are the early out accounts as stated in the RFP. Liquidation is measured as stated above.
Please confirm whether account ages are defined by date of service, or date self
pay is identified.
PBS-Early out are from discharge date and bad debt self pay after insurance is abased off of the
payment date of the third party payor.
CMA/Transplant-Defined by date of service
What activities have been performed on the portfolio of accounts prior to placement? Please describe in terms
of ____ number of notices sent and _____ number of outbound telephone attempts using age ranges listed
below.
PBS-For early out for the hospital side, there is a one statement, prior to being sent for early out.
Self pay after insurance has 4 statements sent, prior to sending to bad debt.
CMA/Transplant-One statement is sent. Balances with no payments after 90 days are submitted to
collection.
Please provide the historical liquidation for each portfolio of service (i.e. Patient Business Services, Carelink,
Community Medicine Associates, UHS Transplant Billing). Please describe liquidation in terms of ____percent
recovered over _____ months on a batch basis.
NOTE: Definition of Batch Basis is as follows: Percent Recovered
Unit of Time
PBS-12% recovery rate for placements
CMA/Transplant-10.5% average for the last 12 months
Please provide account distribution by balance range for each portfolio of service.
Example:
$0-$500 Balance
5,000 Accounts
$1,200,000
$501-$1000 Balance
2,000 Accounts
$1,400,000
$1,001-$5,000 Balance
500 Accounts
$1,000,000
$5,001-$10,000 Balance
150 Accounts
$1,050,000
$10,001+ Balance
20 Accounts
$800,000
The balance ranges may be adjusted. It is extremely beneficial to have an approximate understanding of how
account balances are distributed when compared to the average balance.
PBS-This is not easily defined. For the hospital you can have accounts from $25.00 to
$1,000,000.00.
We do over half million PO services plus 24,000 IP accounts per year. All vary in pricing.
CMA/Transplant-All accounts are under $1,000.00. Very few accounts >$500.00 (<1%)
Please describe your financial assistance and charity care policies.
PBS-The chosen vendor will be able to accept a % off of billed charges for prompt payment. That
will be discussed upon vendor selection. Charity is conducted within the hospital setting and the
vendor participates, in the review committee. After discounts are taken, the vendor will negotiate
payment arrangement for the balances and track these separately from all other accounts.
CMA/Transplant-No charity care policy. We are willing to accept any payment arrangements.
If more than one vendor is chosen, please describe the process of selecting each
vendor for each service (i.e. alpha split by service type, alpha split by facility).
Alpha Split
If used, please provide an example of a competitive scorecard between vendors
with supporting measurement methodology text.
PBS maintains an excel spreadsheet, with placements, collections, etc to track the performance of
vendors. This is an internal process that we maintain.
CMA/Transplant maintains an excel spreadsheet measuring dollars submitted and payments
received.
Please describe your desired implementation timeline (i.e. when do you plan to
start sending accounts to the selected vendor).
December 1, 2006
We are currently in the process of adding an advanced dialer. This new system will be implemented no later than
June 2007. Would this preclude us from being awarded the contract?
PBS-This is a required element.
CMA/Transplant- Not applicable to the area.
Part B Patient Business Services- Can the updating of information be performed in a batch process?
This is a per patient bases and at this time a batch update cannot be performed.
How soon after the award of the contract will accounts be placed with the awarded agency?
Beginning 12/1/06
What is UHS’s definition of “extended business office”? What are the requirements and duties within this
definition?
PBS-You will act as a business office in the collections and payment arrangements of the Business
Office. Since these accounts are not in bad debt, you will act on our behalf.
CMA/Transplant-To act as a representative of CMA with professionalism and customer service
skills.
Part 5. Implementation Approach- What is UHS’s definition of “guarantees”? What are the guidelines or
requirements of agencies to follow in order to provide UHS guarantees of assurance that no cash flow will
decrease?
PBS-We would like to know, how will you guarantee that if you are chosen as the vendor that there
will be no cash flow.
CMA/Transplant-Smooth, seamless transition, prompt reporting, equal or greater results.
Will UHS identify candidates for the 1011 Program or will they expect the agency to do so?
PBS-You will not be expected to do this, only collect for any portion not paid by the 1011 program.
CMA/Transplant-Not applicable to the area.
In order to produce a bill, how would UHS be providing the agencies with all of the data elements?
PBS-you will access to our system. You should only need claim, in the event you need to appeal,
legal matters, etc.
CMA/Transplant-Electronic format over secured email.
Please note Roman numeral III appears consecutively for Statistical information and Statement of need. Are
vendors to keep both as III or as IIIa and IIIb?
III.
STATISTICAL INFORMATION
IV.
STATEMENT OF NEED
IV.
CRITERIA AND SPECIFICATIONS
V.
CRITERIA FOR AWARD
In operating an early out program transparent to the patient, will vendor be able to use the letterhead of University
Hospital System?
Yes
Will all the service lines (Self Pay, CareLink, Community Medicine, Transplant Drug) be assigned to the selected
vendor as part of the Early Out program at day 31?
Patient Business Services will assign all self pay accounts to early out that is not being reviewed
for possible funding by the Third party eligibility
If the answer is NO then which components/service lines of the RFP are applicable to the Early Out component of
the RFP?
Which ones apply to the Bad Debt component/service lines of the RFP?
Patient Business Services will assign any account (most self pay after insurance) after 121 days from
insurance payment date.
On requirement III. A. it states all reports and billing must be separated by department. Will UHS provide a field
or a separate file for each entity to identify the different service lines (PBS, Carelink, Community Medicine,
etc)?
YES
Provide a bi-weekly or monthly magnetic tape of cash payments received. Does UHS have a preferred tape
format? As an alternative would UHS accept a CD-ROM or a DVD?
Yes
Accounts to be returned to UHS because they are deemed by Administration as sensitive. How will these
accounts be communicated to the vendor?
Via e-mail from patient business services or phone call
Report detailed monthly collection statistics by department. Does UHS have a preferred or standard layout on
what they would like to see on the report?
Once the vendor is selected, we can review your reports and ask for changes, if the information we
require is not available.
Generate patient statements in English/Spanish when applicable. Will UHS provide the language codes in the
standard data transfer files for each account?
We send all data in English. We are referring to your collection letters, where you identify a Spanish
speaking patient. We are stating that these need to be available in Spanish for those population.
On requirement III.B. Vendor will designate staff to enter data into patient account. Can UHS accept an
electronic file to upload into IDX?
NO
Access to UHS systems via VPN. Will the vendor be required to purchase licenses for the specified UHS
applications or will UHS provide all software licenses?
No
Is there a process/policy in place for coordinating activities with UHS Legal?
Once the vendor has been awarded the contract, we will have a meeting with the legal staff to
coordinate their work flows with your daily processes.
Patients who qualify for the Section 1011 Program through CMS no fee will be paid. How would UHS like to
receive these accounts back? Is there a process/policy in place for coordinating the return of these types of
accounts? Would a cancellation report work?
These accounts are usually in early out or bad debt. 99% of the accounts will have a remaining
balance. We will not pull these accounts from the vendor, we will have you adjust the balance after
payment and continue to collect. The CMS 1011 payments will not be considered a third party
payment, where we will pay a fee.
Will the response to these questions or any other questions submitted by other vendors be posted on the internet?
If so where?
Yes