Dental Insurance Provider Services

The purpose of this document is to provide interested parties with information to enable them to prepare and submit a proposal according to the specifications set forth within this document.

The County intends to use the results of this process to award a contract or issue a purchase order for the product(s) and/or service(s) stated Dental Insurance Provider Services.

The Dane County Purchasing Division is the sole point of contact for questions and issues that may arise during the RFP process.

Project Details

• Reference ID: 2026-RFP-017-PR
• Department: Employee Relations
• Department Head: Amy Utzig (Director)

Important Dates

• Questions Due: 2026-03-24T21:00:00.000Z
• Answers Posted By: 2026-03-27T21:00:24.552Z

Addenda

• Addendum #1 (released 2026-02-26T21:07:46.578Z) —

  Uploaded Attachment GG - Plan Management Report - COUNTY OF DANE  (Retirees) 7805 1.1.2024-12.31.2025.

  Please use the See What Changed link to view all the changes made by this addendum.

• Addendum #2 (released 2026-03-03T15:01:52.490Z) —

  Uploaded Attachment HH – Actual Paid Premiums 2024-2025.

  The attachment contains the actual paid premiums Dane County paid to Delta Dental for 2024-2025. This is being provided using Dane County reporting as Delta accepts the amounts billed by the county so their internal reporting could be slightly off.

  Please use the See What Changed link to view all the changes made by this addendum.

• Addendum #3 (released 2026-03-25T13:19:49.242Z) —

  Added Attachment II - Direct Billing Monthly Reports in response to a question asked in the Q&A. 

  Please use the See What Changed link to view all the changes made by this addendum.

• Addendum #4 (released 2026-03-30T21:15:25.659Z) —

  Added Attachment JJ - Retiree Experience 2024-2025

  Please use the See What Changed link to view all the changes made by this addendum.

Evaluation Criteria

• Dental Cost Control Information (15 pts) —

  Members of the County’s group are interested in acting as efficient and informed consumers of dental care to assist in controlling costs. 

  1. Describe how your group plan will assist members to obtain information regarding the cost of dental services prior to use, so that they can compare the costs of potential providers and be better informed consumers. 
  2. If applicable, describe how your proposed plan would deal with instances where members are balance billed for charges over the usual and customary rate.
• Summary of Benefits (30 pts) —
  1. Provide what your company believes is the optimum plan structure given your individual underwriting guidelines. 
  1. 1. The County seeks pricing for the schedule of benefits as outlined in Attachment Y for Active Employees, Attachment Z for Retirees and Attachment AA for CARPC employees. 
     2. In addition, balancing factors, such as members access to a wide care network, costs to individual members (copays, deductibles etc), and the cost to the County (monthly premiums), must be taken into consideration .
  2. Benefits must be equal to or superior to both In-Network and Out-of-Network Current Benefits outlined in Attachments Y, Z and AA.
  3. Outline any special programs or carrier specific offerings that you provide and callout where you are unable to match current offerings
  4. Provide a copy of the terms, conditions, and endorsements of all proposed policies associated with your proposal. 
• Network & Program (15 pts) —

  Service Network

  1. Provide a description of the provider network associated with the proposed group insurance plan. 
  2. Does your plan include contract/participating dentists?
  1. 1. If yes, provide a complete list of all contract/participating dentists/clinics in Dane County and counties surrounding Dane County. 
     2. If yes, how many contract/participating dentists/clinics are in the following areas:
  1. 1. 1. City of Madison:
        2. Dane County:
        3. Counties immediately surrounding Dane County:
  3. Describe the capacity of the proposed network and its ability to accommodate approximately 6,982 new subscribers.
  4. Use Attachment N - 2025 Provider Report Dane County to show member disruption based on recent claims utilization by provider.
  5. Do you have networks nation-wide for retirees?

  Transition Plan

  1. Describe the transition plan you would implement to seamlessly transition group members from the current insurance carrier to your plan.
  2. Describe the procedures you would follow to assist Dane County in making the transition to your company.

  Program Setup & Operation

  1. Vendor must assign a central point of contact for the County and its subscribers.
  1. 1. Describe in detail how this requirement will be met.
  2. Vendor must be able to use the County’s enrollment form.  (See Attachment T)
  1. 1. Describe in detail how this requirement will be met.
  3. Vendor must be able to provide ID cards without identifying Social Security numbers on the cards.
  1. 1. Describe in detail how this requirement will be met.
  4. How soon after the award of the contract by the County will insurance identification cards, brochures or booklets describing the insurance coverage and claim filing procedures be provided to the employees?
  5. Will you provide a separate tab on your website specific to Dane County?
  6. Vendor must provide regular explanation of benefit forms to subscribers.
  1. 1. Confirm that regular explanation of benefits forms will be provided to subscribers.
     2. Provide a sample of your explanation of benefits.

  Reporting & Tracking

  1. Vendor must provide data for compliance with GASB 45 in electronic format within 30 days of the County’s request.
  1. 1. Provide confirmation (and explanation if necessary) that this can be provided accordingly.
  2. Can you provide a utilization report?
  3. How soon after the end of a policy year will an annual report be provided to the County?
  4. How will you track the E + S retirees?
  5. How will you track the adult dependent children (ie: children over 18 and/or disabled)? 
• Billing & Claims (10 pts) —

  Billing

  1. Vendor must accept County's billing.
     1. Confirm that the County's billing be accepted. 
        1. For the County’s, Health, Dental and Vision insurance billings, we prepare a monthly billing spreadsheet that documents, by employee, details of the premiums being paid that month. 
        2. We do not reconcile to the invoices prepared by the providers. 
        3. Any discrepancies found by the provider are then communicated to us and adjustments are made accordingly. 
        4. The spreadsheet furnished to the providers contains the detail of the adjustments made by us so that they can verify that all proper adjustments have been made.
  2. If a dentist's bill does not fit the dental program's UCR, can the dentist bill the patient for the difference?

  Claims & Grievance Process

  1. What is the average amount of time taken to process a routine claim from the date of submission to the date of payment?
  2. What is the amount of time taken to process a best case scenario claim from the date of submission to the date of payment?
  3. What is the amount of time taken to process a worst case scenario claim from the date of submission to the date of payment?
  4. Describe how your organization handles situations where a member’s claim is denied. 
  5. Describe the appeal process. 
  6. Describe the membership of any appeal committee.
• Cost (30 pts)
• Local Vendor Preference (5 pts)

Submission Requirements

• RFP DOCUMENT UPLOADS
• Single Proposal Submission (required) —

  Only 1 proposal is allowed to be submitted per Vendor Account. This means if you are submitting multiple proposals, you must follow the instructions set forth within the Section 2.2 RFP Guidelines and Overview - Multiple Proposals & Acceptance. 

  It is understood that if multiple proposals are uploaded using 1 vendor account, the entire submission will be subject to disqualification. 

• RFP Response Document - Upload your Proposal (required) —

  Please DO NOT include Cost information in this section.

• RFP Response - Supplemental Document Upload —

  Upload any additional or required information documents that supplements this solicitation.

• RFP Cost Proposal Document - Upload Cost Proposal (required) —

  Pricing shall be inclusive of all labor, delivery costs and other expenses necessary to provide product in accordance with the specifications and terms and conditions of this bid document and your proposal.

   

   

   

   

• RFP Cost Proposal - Supplemental Document Upload —

  If applicable, upload any documents providing further clarification of the submitted pricing from the Pricing Table. This is not required.

• W9 Upload (required) —

  Upload your company's W9 form.

  NOTE: The W9 is required to be signed within the past 12 months

• VENDOR INFORMATION
• Local Vendor Preference (required) —

  Select a Local Vendor Preference:

  Vendors located within Dane County automatically receive five points toward the evaluation score.

  Vendors located within the counties adjacent to Dane County (Columbia, Dodge, Green, Iowa, Jefferson, Rock, Sauk) automatically receive two points toward the evaluation score.

  Vendors located outside of Dane County and the 7 counties adjacent to Dane County would choose "No Preference".

  NOTE: A post office box address does not qualify as an established place of business.

• Fair Labor Practice Certification (required) —

  Has your company been found by the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB") or the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission ("WERC") to have violated any statute or regulation regarding labor standards or relations in the seven years prior to the date this bid submission is signed?
  
  If yes is answered, a copy of any relevant information regarding such violation is required to be uploaded with your bid submission.

  Additional information about the NLRB and WERC can be found using the following links:
  www.nlrb.gov and http://werc.wi.gov.

• Cooperative Purchasing (required) —

  Reference Guidelines - Section F.

  Does your company agree to furnish the commodities or services of this bid to municipalities and state agencies?

• Designation of Confidential and Proprietary Information (required) —

  Please specify what information you wish to designate as confidential and proprietary. Please identify section/ pages/ topic /documents, etc.

  NOTE: Pricing sections cannot be designated as confidential and proprietary.

  If nothing will be designated, simply type "None" in the section below.

• Did you attend the mandatory vendor conference? (required)
• Did you attend the mandatory vendor conference? (required)
• RFP ADDENDA
• I understand that if any addendum is issued I will have to acknowledge the posted addendum. (required)
• If an addendum is posted after I have submitted my proposal response and the resulting addendum requires action to be taken either in the Specification Section or Pricing Section, I understand that: (required) —

  1. I will have to unsubmit my proposal response.

  2. I will have to acknowledge the posted addendum.

  3. I will have to take action in responding to the changes on either the Specification Section or Pricing Section.

  4. I will then have to resubmit my proposal response.

  Further instructions on addendum(a) postings can be found here.

• SIGNATURE DECLARATION
• RFP Solicitation Response Declaration (required) —

  In submitting and confirming this solicitation response, we certify that we have not, either directly or indirectly, entered into any agreement or participated in any collusion or otherwise taken any action in restraint of free competition; that no attempt has been made to induce any other person or firm to submit or not to submit a solicitation response; that this solicitation response has been independently arrived at without collusion with any other vendor competitor or potential competitor; that this solicitation response has not been knowingly disclosed prior to the opening of bids to any other vendor or competitor; that the above statement is accurate under penalty of perjury.

  Further, by submitting this solicitation response, firm agrees with all the terms, conditions, and specifications required by the County in this solicitation and declares that the corresponding solicitation response and pricing are in conformity therewith.

  I have read and understood the entire document.

  I declare under penalty of false swearing under the law of Wisconsin that the foregoing is true and correct.

• Signed on: (required) —

  Write in month, day, year and city/state in which the submission occurred.
  Example: June 27, 2025 in Madison, WI

• Electronically signed by: (required) —

  Provide First Name, Last Name and Title

• What is the MUNIS ORG & OBJECT code and available funds for this project? (required)
• Purchase Description
• How soon do you desire to OBTAIN the requested products/services? —

  Enter a specific date

  Figure 2 months minimum for RFB,

  Figure 6 month minimum for RFP from posting date

• Do you need this solicitation posted sooner than three weeks from now? —

  The typical lead time from intake to solicitation posting is 3-6 weeks depending on whether it's an RFP or RFB and complexity of the solicitation.

• Justification for Rush Request —

  Please provide desired posting date and justification for rush request

• What is the anticipated cost for this solicitation? (All Applicable Terms Combined)
• Via contract or a bid, is there an existing vendor currently providing these goods/services?
• Please state the current Contract # or Bid #:
• Is a vendor conference desired for this project? —

  NOTE: All vendor conferences are defaulted to begin at 10:00 am. Select dates that you and other staff are available at 10:00 am.

• (Yes - Mandatory on Site) List all dates that necessary staff are available to host the vendor conference:
• (Yes - Mandatory on Site) Provide address for vendor conference: —

  Include any other specific details such as Room #, directions, etc.

• (Yes - Optional on Site) Provide address for vendor conference: —

  Include any other specific details such as Room #, directions, etc.

• (Yes - Optional on Site) List all dates that necessary staff are available to host the vendor conference:
• (Yes - Mandatory Virtual) List all dates that necessary staff are available to host the vendor conference:
• (Yes - Optional Virtual) List all dates that necessary staff are available to host the vendor conference:
• Who will be evaluating this solicitation? —
  • If this is an RFB, provide name of one evaluator
  • If this is an RFP, provide names of three evaluators minimum. If evaluator is outside of the County, provide email address also.
• Pricing table required? —

  Always select "Yes" unless this is a Highway WisDot Design Project

• External Pricing Document?* —

  Is an external pricing document being used?

Questions & Answers