Agent of Record

The Washington County Department of Human Resources is seeking proposals from individuals, firms, teams or consultants, hereafter called “Proposer(s),” with demonstrated experience in public sector health and welfare benefit consulting.

Minimum Requirements:

Proposer must meet the following minimum requirements to be considered qualified:

• Be affiliated with a legal business authorized to do business in the State of Oregon. All necessary permits, licenses and professional insurances must be in force at the time of selection.
• Have key personnel who have at least fifteen (15) years of experience in providing employee benefits consulting and actuarial services to employer groups and at least ten (10) years of experience providing these services to public entities in Oregon.

Project Details

• Reference ID: 2026.063-RFP
• Department: Human Resources
• Department Head: Eva LaBonte (Assistant Director of Support Services)

Important Dates

• Questions Due: 2026-05-23T00:00:00.000Z

Evaluation Criteria

• Page Count (10 pts) —

  Within the page limit

• Qualifications and Experience (15 pts) —
  • Describe your organization’s overall history, experience and company development. If your organization is owned by another company, please describe.
  • Describe your organization’s experience with employee benefit plans for state and local governments.
  • Provide a brief resume that describes the experience and education of those in your office who would be providing service to the County. Describe the team that would be assigned to support Washington County, and how many clients each manages. Include the number of clients each person is expected to support, categorized by size and the city where the office these people work from is located.
  • How many clients do you currently work with on a broker basis with employee populations between 1-250, 251-1,500, 1,501-3,000 and 3,000+?
• Capabilities (15 pts) —
  • Describe your organization’s expertise in the service areas outlined in the Scope of Work section. Confirm that your firm would be able to provide all services listed in the Scope of Work section. List any services in that section that you would not be able to provide.
  • Are there other services that are not listed in the Scope of Work section that you would recommend be added to the services your firm would provide to the County?
  • List any potential conflicts of interest that your firm foresees if you are selected as the successful vendors, or state that you foresee none. Have any of the principals of your firm been named in a lawsuit for consulting services similar to the services requested by this proposal? If so, please provide details.
• Understanding and Recommended Approach (30 pts) —
  • Provide a brief synopsis of your understanding of the County’s needs and a work plan to meet those needs. The proposed work plan will thoroughly address all aspects of the scope of work including the following:
    • Demonstrate how your plan will effectively execute items detailed in the scope of work.
    • Describe how the project team will be adequate to complete the work as outlined in the scope of work.
    • Describe how your work plan demonstrates an understanding of the projects and objectives to be achieved and provide relevant examples of innovative solutions you have provided to clients.
  • How do you advise your clients about cost containment strategies? What tools and/or resources do you utilize to effectively communicate with and advise clients?
  • Please provide a proposed annual calendar for the services you would deliver to Washington County, showing both interaction with Washington County and the vendors/carriers of the Plans.
  • Describe your firm’s perspective on wellness programs and their impact on controlling healthcare costs while adding value to an organization. Please include example(s) of wellness initiatives you have partnered with clients to launch and their impact, if any, on employees and rates.
  • Please describe what your firm believes are the most compelling current issues in the employee benefits industry that are driving costs and how your firm is uniquely poised to help Washington County address them. Include examples of your firm’s leadership and innovation in employee benefits.
• Access & Opportunity (15 pts) —

  Describe efforts made by your organization to consider accessibility and opportunity for all in your firm’s hiring practices and business philosophy. How do you incorporate broad perspectives and backgrounds into your business model? How does your approach inform and support clients in selecting providers, and managing and administering employee benefits that are valuable and accessible to support all employees?

• Project Cost/Budget (20 pts) —
  • Include the true estimated cost to perform the work irrespective of the County's budgeted funds for this work. Estimate the full compensation for services rendered, and for all labor, materials, supplies, equipment and incidentals and costs incurred and necessary to perform the work and services outlined in the Scope section of this RFP. Additionally, separately estimate the full compensation for services rendered, and for all labor, materials, supplies, equipment and incidentals and costs necessary to perform the work and services outlined under the Conditional Services section of this RFP. Costs associated with the conditional services will only be the County’s responsibility if the County makes a written request for these services and these Conditional services are provided by the successful Proposer.
  • Proposer shall include the projected cost for your firm’s employee benefits and consulting services. Cost shall include the hourly rates of each person associated with the project; the estimated number of hours each staff member will be expected to work on each task; and the estimated annual cost of the project. Costs should include all administrative overhead, travel, travel time and other related expenses. Proposers shall indicate the projected costs for multi-year contracts. The County is also interested in considering alternative pricing models. In addition to the pricing model required above, proposers may include other pricing models for the County’s consideration.
  • Describe your experience in monitoring financial reports, plan costs and provider expenses provided by vendors, including your approach to evaluating cost trends, utilization and network performance. Provide a sample report.
• References (5 pts) —
  • List at least three clients, preferably Oregon public entities, similar in size to the County (present and past clients) for which the proposed team members have performed similar services. Include contact person’s name, email address, and telephone number. List any clients lost over the past 5 years, the reason for the loss, and the name, email address, and phone number of the last contact at that client.
  • Provide, in a table format as noted below, the number of groups under contract with your firm and how many of them are public entities.

  

   

  • Contract and Insurance Requirements Review the Sample Personal Services Contract and Attachment F, Business Associate Agreement attached to this RFP - list any issues or exceptions. Review the insurance requirements for this contract and list any exceptions.
• Interviews (50 pts) —

  Top scoring proposers may be selected for interviews. If oral interviews are determined to be necessary, the scores from the written proposals will be considered preliminary. Final scores will be determined based on the points assigned to the interview process.

  If interviews are necessary, they are projected for the week of June 15, 2026.

Submission Requirements

• Electronic Submittal (required) —

  By electronically submitting this response the Supplier attests and certifies that:

  1. Person completing this response represents that I am either authorized to bind the Supplier, or that I am submitting the Response on behalf of and at the direction of the Supplier's representative authorized to contractually bind the Supplier.

  2. I represent that the Supplier or its applicable representative(s) has reviewed the information contained in this Solicitation Package and that the information submitted is accurate.

  3. Respondent agrees that the action of electronically submitting its response constitutes:

  a. an electronic signature on the responses, generally,

  b. an agreement to conduct business electronically,

  c. an electronic signature on any form or section specifically calling for a

  signature, and

  d. an affirmative agreement to any statement contained in the solicitation

  that requires a definite confirmation or acknowledgement.

• Solicitation Requirements (required) —

  Proposer read through and confirm that you met all of the Solicitation requirements?

• Licenses, permits, professional insurances (required) —

  Proposer is affiliated with a legal business authorized to do business in the State of Oregon. All necessary permits, licenses and professional insurances must be in force at the time of selection.

• Years of experience (required) —

  Have key personnel who have at least fifteen (15) years of experience in providing employee benefits consulting and actuarial services to employer groups and at least ten (10) years of experience providing these services to public entities in Oregon.

• Cooperative Purchasing (required) —

  Will the proposer extend pricing and terms to other public agencies?(there is no penalty for not agreeing to extend pricing)

• Past Employment (required) —

  Have you or a member of your staff been an employee of Washington County in the last six months?

• Oregon Secretary of State Business Registry (required) —

  Enter your registry number without dashes or spaces. If you are not currently registered enter N/A. If you are the successful bidder you will be required to register with the Secretary of State in order to contract with the County, per OAR 125-246-0330. 

• Tax (required) —

  The proposer hereby certifies that they have complied with the tax laws of Oregon and all political subdivision of the State of Oregon, including ORS 305.620 and ORS chapters 316, 317 and 318. Washington County may terminate the contract if contractor fails to comply with any tax laws during the term of the contract.

• Contact Name, Email, and Phone Number (required) —

  Provide the name, email, and phone number for the contact in case of questions, or interview or demonstration arrangements.

• Proposal Content —

  The proposal shall be prepared succinctly, providing a straight forward, concise description of the proposer’s ability to meet the requirements of the RFP. There should be no unnecessary attachments or exhibits.

  Proposal should contain no more than fifty (50) 8.5" x 11", pages of written material describing the ability of the proposer to perform the work described. The minimum font shall be twelve (12) point single spaced and the minimum margins shall be one (1) inch on all sides.

• Proposal Content (required) —

  Upload your proposal here. After uploading documents responders are encouraged to open and review uploaded documents to verify that they can be opened and are the correct documents before submitting.  If the County cannot open any of the documents submitted the entire proposal will be disqualified. 

• Separate Cost Proposal (required) —

  Confirm that your fee proposal is not attached in your Proposal and is attached separately here.

• Insurance Requirements —

  County insurance requirement can be found under the section titled Attachments. The County may consider reducing insurance for these services. Please upload your Certificate of Insurance (Accord form) to indicate the level of insurance you currently possess.

• Confidential Information —

  Upload all pages or documents containing information exempt from disclosure per the Proprietary Information, Ownership and Use of Documents article of the Terms and Conditions Section.

• Changes Requested to County Contract Standard Terms and Conditions —

  Upload any alterations requested to Washington County's contract standard terms and conditions per the Form of Contract article of the Terms and Conditions Section.

• Solicitation Awareness (required) —

  How did you hear about this opportunity?

• Pre-Proposal Conference (required) —

  Will there be a Pre-Proposal Conference?

• Please select the options that pertain to this solicitation.
• Electronic Pricing Table (required) —

  Would you like to have bidders respond to an electronic pricing table through ProcureNow?

  Choose this if you want them to provide rates or pricing in a format dictated by you.

• Separate Fee Proposal Upload (required) —

  Will you want your bidder to separate a Price Proposal from the rest of the Response?

• Page Limit (required) —

  Proposal should contain no more than 'Page Limit 8.5" x 11", pages of written material (excluding biographies and brochures which may be included in an appendix) describing the ability of the proposer to perform the work described.

• Will you be issuing more than one contract? (required) —

  Is this a multiple award type solicitation?

• Term of Contract (required) —

  Unless authorized by the Board a contract cannot exceed five years, but there are various ways that contracts can be set up. Please choose your preference. Options 2 - 3 will require amendments to extend the contract at the designated times.

• What is the Funding Source? (required)
• Federal Funds (required) —

  Will Federal Funds be used to pay part or all of the agreements made under this solicitation

• Cost/Pricing Model —

  What is the expected resulting Contract Type with a selection of "Firm-Fixed-Lump-Sum" Firm-Fixed-Unit-Price", "Cost-reimbursement + Fee/Profit/Incentive" "Mixed/Flexible" would then provide us a clear picture of what the price-proposal or cost-proposal structure needs to be, and this the approriate instructions to the proposer can be provided.

• Subrecipient/Contractor *Related to Fed Funds only* —

  Based on the intended scope of work for the awarded agreement, will the proposer be case as a subrecipient under 2 cfr 200.331

• Fixed Award Permission *Related to Fed Funds only* (required) —

  Do you have prior approval from the federal awarding agency to enter into a fixed awward? Did you inform them of the requirement for them to upload documentation of the pre-approval either from official guidance or from direct communication (email).

• Beneficiary (required) —

  Is this a solicitation for proposals/applications for a beneficiary program?