SLED Opportunity · FLORIDA · COUNTY OF COLLIER, FL
AI Summary
Collier County, FL seeks qualified vendors through an RFP for Pharmacy Benefit Management Services to manage prescription drug benefits. Historical spending is about $8.7M. Vendors must meet specified requirements.
As requested by the Human Resources Division (hereinafter, the “Division or Department”), the Collier County Board of County Commissioners Procurement Services Division (hereinafter, “County”) has issued this Request for Proposals (hereinafter, “RFP”) with the intent of obtaining proposals from interested and qualified Vendors in accordance with the terms, conditions and specifications stated herein, in the Solicitation and/or attachments. The Vendors, at a minimum, must achieve the requirements of the Specifications, Scope of Services, or Scope of Work stated herein. All references to “Proposer” are also referred to as “Consultant,” “Firm,” “Offeror,” “Contractor,” and “Vendor.”
Historically, County departments have spent approximately $8.7M; however, this may not be indicative of future buying patterns.
Collier County, Florida, is located on southwest Florida’s Paradise Coast. The County includes the communities of Naples, Marco Island, Everglades City, and Immokalee, and is one of the largest counties east of the Mississippi River, encompassing more than 2,000 square miles.
The County is seeking proposals from Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), to administer the existing pharmacy program. The program will cover the Collier County Manager’s Agency and associated local government agencies, located in Naples, Florida. This program covers and may be utilized by employees of the County Manager’s Agency of Collier County and associated local government agencies, which currently include the Clerk of the Circuit Courts, Property Appraiser, Supervisor of Elections, and Tax Collector. A majority of Collier County Government employees are enrolled in the health plan, inclusive of pharmacy coverage, with approximately 2,400 enrolled employees of 4,800 covered members. Approximately 19% of employees live in surrounding counties and travel to Collier for work.
The County's group health plan is a wellness-driven, behavior-based program in which employees qualify for different benefit levels based on evidence-based wellness criteria. The plan is designed to support long-term health, ensuring employees are in optimal condition as they approach retirement. The highest benefit tier, known as the Premium Plan, consistently sees approximately 90% participation from employees, spouses, and qualified dependents each year. Its current structure includes a $50 individual deductible ($150 per family), followed by 20% co-insurance on retail prescriptions for both generic and brand-name medications, with an out-of-pocket maximum of $500 per individual ($1,500 per family).
The County is an active participant in the Collier County Health Care Consortium (CCHCC), a collaborative group of larger community employers focused on addressing shared health care challenges. In addition to the County, other current members include Collier County Public Schools, Collier County Sheriff, and Naples Community Hospital. The Consortium works toward solutions that benefit employers, employees, and taxpayers alike. While we occasionally conduct joint procurement efforts, we ensure built-in flexibility, allowing each employer the autonomy to pursue alternative options if needed. Any contract executed for the services requested herein will include a clause permitting other governmental and tax-funded agencies to leverage the contract through a cooperative purchasing (piggybacking) provision.
The Vendor must provide all services listed in this Scope of Services. The County does not guarantee a specific quantity of work.
Provide a cover letter that includes:
•The Proposer’s philosophy in providing the services requested.
•Name(s), telephone number(s) and email(s) of the authorized contact person(s) concerning proposal. Note: Submission of a proposal certifies that the Proposer will accept any awards as a result of this RFP.
Submit certification with the Florida Department of Management Service, Office of Supplier Diversity as a Certified Woman and/or Minority Business Enterprise.
• Detailed plan of approach (including major tasks and sub-tasks).
• Detailed timeline for completion of the project.
This criterion evaluates the Vendor’s understanding of and the capacity to fully meet the requirements outlined in the Detailed Scope of Work, as well as the Vendors’ responses to the questions found in Attachment A – Pharmacy Benefits Management Services Questionnaire.
The County will assess the extent to which the proposal demonstrates a clear, detailed, and practical approach to delivering all specified services, including clinical program support, claims processing, reporting, formulary management, customer service, and regulatory compliance.
• Clearly describe any deviations anticipated from the outline in the Detailed Scope of Work.
• Describe how your firm expects to comply with the Detailed Scope of Work as outlined in Section 2: Key Objectives.
The Selection Committee will also consider the Vendor’s operational readiness, technical capabilities, and any proposed enhancements or innovations that improve service delivery.
• Demonstrate how the Vendor has a comprehensive grasp of the County’s needs and provide a solution that aligns with the goals and expectations outlined in the RFP.
• As part of your proposal, please complete the following Attachments:
o Attachment A - Pharmacy Benefits Management Services Questionnaire (includes Attachments B – Pharmacy Benefits for Collier County Government, Attachment C – Collier County Government Historical Claims 2025, and Attachment E- Collier County Formulary rev. 1.1.26).
Failure to provide complete attachments may result in your proposal being considered non-responsive
This criterion measures the overall financial competitiveness, structure, and clarity of the Vendor’s pricing found in Attachment D – Collier County Government Rx RFP – Financial Proposals, Tab CCG PBM Proposal.
• Please provide pricing in Attachment D – Collier County Government Rx RFP – Financial Proposals.
• Evaluation will focus on transparency of fees, rebate structures, administrative costs, and the overall value offered.
• Fees are expected to be inclusive of all charges, including but not limited to: Vendor services, administrative overhead, tools, equipment, travel, fuel, etc.
• If you consider any portion of your documentation to be a trade, proprietary, or otherwise confidential please clearly mark those item documents as such in accordance with Chapter 119, Florida Statutes (Public Records Law).
Ability of Professional Personnel:
• Include the qualifications, experience, and organizational strength of the Vendor’s proposed team in relation to the Scope of Services requested by Collier County. An emphasis will be placed on the professional credentials and relevant experience of individuals assigned to key roles, such as account management, clinical oversight, operations, analytics, and member support, as well as the overall staffing approach and effectiveness of the Vendors team’s structure.
• The County will consider the team’s demonstrated ability to manage contracts of a similar type, size, and complexity, along with their capacity to provide strategic insight and responsive day-to-day support. Additional consideration will be given to teams with specialized expertise in occupational medical services and a strong record of cross-functional collaboration.
• Highlight how the Vendor’s teams, both individual professionals and organizational partners, have a proven history of working together successfully on comparable engagements.
Past Performance:
• To demonstrate success in providing pharmacy benefit management services to clients of similar size and complexity the County will consider the Vendor’s history of contract performance, including service quality, responsiveness, client satisfaction, effectiveness of clinical programs, cost containment, and adherence to contractual obligations.
• The County requests that the Vendor submit no fewer than three (3) and no more than ten (10) completed reference forms from clients during a period of the last 5 years whose projects are of a similar nature to this solicitation as a part of their proposal.
• Provide information on the projects completed by the Vendor that best represents projects of similar size, scope and complexity to this project using the Reference form provided. Vendors may include two (2) additional pages for each project to illustrate aspects of the completed project that provides information to assess the experience of the Vendor on relevant project work.
Transition Plan:
Vendor to explain the strategy and readiness to ensure a smooth, timely, and disruption-free transition of the Vendor’s services. The evaluation will consider the completeness and clarity of the proposed transition timeline, including key milestones, and the Vendor’s understanding of the operational and logistical complexities involved in implementing a pharmacy benefit program.
The plan should demonstrate the Vendor’s ability to coordinate effectively with Collier County staff, providers, members, and, if applicable, the incumbent Vendor. Particular attention will be given to how the Vendor will prevent disruptions to member access, benefit continuity, and service levels during the transition period. The evaluation will also consider the strength of the communication strategy, the identification and mitigation of potential risks, and the qualifications of the dedicated transition team.
•Description of the proposed contract team and the roles.
•Brief resumes of all proposed project team members who will be involved in the management of the total package of services, as well as the delivery of specific services.
•Resumes of letters of intent for sub-contractors/vendors.
Local business is defined as the Proposer having a current Business Tax Receipt issued by the Collier or Lee County Tax Collector prior to proposal submission to do business within Collier County, and that identifies the business with a permanent physical business address located within the limits of Collier or Lee County from which the Proposer’s staff operates and performs business in an area zoned for the conduct of such business.
Confirm that your fee proposal is not attached in your Proposal and is attached separately here.
Request for Proposal (RFP) Instructions have been acknowledged and accepted.
Collier County Purchase Order Terms and Conditions have been acknowledged and accepted.
Vendor Acknowledges Insurance Requirement and is prepared to produce the required insurance certificate(s) within five (5) days of the County's issuance of a Notice of Recommended Award.
Please submit a proposal per Evaluation Criteria outlined in Solicitation.
Include the completed form a copy of the business tax receipt.
Vendor MUST be enrolled in the E-Verify - https://www.e-verify.gov/ at the time of submission of the proposal/bid. E-Verify Memorandum of Understanding or Company Profile page should be attached with your submittal.
http://dos.myflorida.com/sunbiz/ should be attached with your submittal.
Will there be an evaluation committee to review the proposals and score them based on weights and multiple criteria?
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Q (The effective date ): The effective date listed in the proposal document is not accurate: 1/1/2026 through 12/31/2028.Can you confirm? Thank you,
A: Thank you for your question regarding the effective dates. Our Project Manager has confirmed that the intended initial contract term is January 1, 2027, through December 31, 2029, and that pricing should be quoted and remain firm for this period. If the dates you are referencing are located elsewhere in the proposal (1/1/2026–12/31/2028), could you please provide the page number for context? This will help us verify and correct any discrepancies.
Q (Pricing Tables): Can you please provide the pricing tables you’d like completed as part of this RFP? Or, should we use our own standard format?
A: Please refer to Attachment D - Collier County Government Rx RFP - Financial Proposals. This file has the items/tabs/worksheets that need to be completed.
Q (No subject): Who is the incumbent PBM?
A: The incumbent is Navitus.
Q (No subject): Are there any in-house pharmacies? If so, please provide the NPI.
A: No. Collier County will not have a pharmacy-specific NPI, as there is no in house pharmacy. Pre-packaged acute care medications will be dispensed by the County’s employee medical clinic provider. Please refer to Attachment G – Proposed Acute Care Formulary.
Q (No subject): Are edits allowed for the BAA?
A: No edits are allowed for the BAA at this time.
Q (Protected Health Information): Will we receive any PHI as part of the RFP?
A: No, there will not be any PHI.
Q (Allowances): Does Collier County anticipate passing on any expenses for implementation or should an implementation allowance, or any other allowances, be quoted?
A: Vendors should include implementation/audit credits, which could be applied toward a post implementation audit or other implementation-related costs.
Q (Mutual NDA): Is Collier County open to reviewing PBM's MNDA in lieu of the BAA since Collier will not be disclosing PHI as part of the RFP process?
A: Protected Health Information (PHI) will not be shared during the RFP process; however, PHI may be disclosed following the execution of a formal agreement between both parties. As such, execution of a compliant Business Associate Agreement (BAA) will be required as a condition of selection. As a public entity, Collier County is subject to applicable public records laws, and most records may be subject to disclosure. Exceptions may be considered for information that is properly identified as proprietary or otherwise exempt in accordance with law.
Q (No subject): Attachment A Question G1 instructs vendor to include a copy of proposed contract. Is the County looking for a sample contract or an executable contract?
A: The County is requesting a sample contract for review as part of the RFP response. The submitted agreement should be representative of the vendor’s proposed terms and conditions and as close as possible to the form the vendor would seek to execute. Please note that the final agreement will be subject to negotiation and may require multiple revisions prior to execution by both parties.
Q (Form 5 - Reference Questionnaire): For the RFP reference request for Collier County Board of County Commissioners, references are being requested from current clients. There is a section of the attached reference form (Form 5) that asks the reference client to cite a “project.” Could you please clarify which project should be referenced such as the current contract, a recent RFP experience, implementation experience, or another project? Additionally, please confirm whether the completion date, budget, and number of days are required to be completed in this section.
A: Please refer to Evaluation Criteria No. 5 – Experience and Capacity of the Firm in the solicitation. Form 5 should be completed with all requested information, including completion date, budget, and number of days. The “project” referenced should reflect work similar in size, scope, and complexity to the services sought in this solicitation. This may include a current contract, recent RFP engagement, implementation, or another comparable project from the past five years.
Q (Attachment D): On line 27 of the CCG PBM Proposal tab of Attachment D, it asks for all claims excluded from discount and dispensing fee guarantees. However, the "comments" cell is a drop down. How do we go about providing the requested information?
A: The proposers can now enter the requested information directly into the comments cell on line 27 of the CCG PBM Proposal tab in Attachment D. The cell has been updated to allow text input rather than limiting responses to a drop down.
Q (Form 6: Grant Provisions and Assurances ): This form is referenced within the Vendor Checklist to be completed and executed with our submittal; however, it is not included in the attachments.
A: The Grant Provisions are not applicable to this solicitation.
Q (Bid Schedule): In the Vendor Checklist, it indicates that "the Bid Schedule has been completed and attached with your submittal, applicable to bids." Is this a separate attachment that was to be provided?
A: For clarification the "Bid Schedules" in this solicitation would refer to completion of all required fillable Attachments.
Q (Bid Schedule needed): The Vendor checklist states "The Bid Schedule has been completed and attached with your submittal, applicable to bids." We did not receive a bid schedule in the downloads provided. Please advise.
A: Please refer to the answer in Question 13. There is no attachment called Bid Schedules, however the Attachments have fillable sections. Please ensure you complete all attachments requiring a response from your firm.
SLED stands for State, Local, and Education. These are solicitations issued by state governments, counties, cities, school districts, utilities, and higher education institutions — as opposed to federal agencies.
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