Active SLED Opportunity · ARIZONA · CITY OF TUCSON
AI Summary
The City of Tucson seeks specific stop loss insurance for its self-funded health plans covering 4,508 employees and retirees, effective July 1, 2026, transitioning to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona for medical and pharmacy services. The RFP includes detailed plan changes and submission requirements.
The City of Tucson (“City”) is the second largest city in Arizona. The City provides police and fire services, parks and recreation, street maintenance, transportation, solid waste management, water and a broad range of administration, para-professional and professional municipal governmental activities and services.
The City is seeking to obtain specific stop loss insurance for its 4,508 covered employees and retirees (mostly pre-Medicare) for a July 1, 2026 effective date. Effective July 1, 2026, the City will be moving to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona (“AZ Blue”) for its medical TPA/network and PBM. Currently, the City has a self-funded plan through Cigna that was placed on July 1, 2019. Prior to this time, the City was under an insured contract with Cigna since 2007. Plan paid medical and prescription drug claims were approximately $43.5 million in the most recent 12 months (thru March 2026).
Stop loss insurance will cover medical and prescription drug coverages. AZ Blue will provide medical TPA services, network administration, UR/UM, and PBM functions through OptumRx, their PBM partner.
Currently, the City offers three medical plans to employees and retirees: a Network plan (HMO like benefits and restricted to participants residing in Arizona), a qualified High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) with Health Savings Account (HSA) and a HDHP with Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) (follow the link below for the latest benefit booklets): https://tucsonaz.gov/benefits
Effective July 1, 2026, the City will continue to offer three medical plans to employees and retirees but intends to eliminate the HDHP with HRA plan by plan year 2027/2028. At this time the City does not know if and how the HDHP with HRA plan will be replaced. The three medical plans under AZ Blue are:
Eligibility and contribution information may be found at: https://tucsonaz.gov/benefits
As medical and pharmacy costs continue to rise, the City has had to implement plan design changes and premium rate changes each plan year since 2022. Plan changes effective 7/1/2026 are outlined below.
EPO In-Network Only Plan:
Deductible Increase by $250/$500 ($1000/$2000)
MOOP Increase by $250/$500 ($6600/$13200)
Increase Coinsurance to 80%
ER Copay Increase to $500
PCP Copay Increase $50
Network: SPC Copay Increase to $70
Rx Copay Increase: $20/$60/$120/$250 2.5x mail
HDHP w/HRA Plan:
Eliminate HRA Contribution
HDHP w/HSA Plan:
No changes to plan design or City contribution to HSA accounts
NO PRE-BID/PROPOSAL CONFERENCE: The City is foregoing a Pre-Bid/Proposal conference for this solicitation. Prospective bidders/offerors are invited to contact the assigned Contract Officer with any questions, preferably within eight (8) days prior to the submittal due date. Ordinarily, the purpose of this conference is to clarify the contents of this solicitation in order to prevent any misunderstanding of the City's position. Any doubt as to the requirements of this solicitation or any apparent omission or discrepancy should be presented to the Contract Officer before the submittal due date. The City will then determine the appropriate action necessary, if any, and issue a written addendum to the solicitation. Oral statements or instructions shall not constitute an addendum to this solicitation. Questions should be entered into the Q&A section of this solicitation in the OpenGov system. The deadline for questions is 5/5/2026 at 2 pm Arizona time (MST).
The City's contracted benefits consultant, McGriff, a Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC company, will be assisting the City with this RFP process.
The contact information on the "Request for Confidential Documents Form" has been updated.
The Pricing Proposal (see Attachment C) must be completed in its entirety. Any sections left unanswered will reduce the total points.
Please also include any additional cost separate from the set rates provided and provide details on the additional cost.
The Method of Approach questionnaire (see Attachment B) must be completed in its entirety. Any questions left unanswered will reduce the total points for this phase.
The Qualifications & Experience questionnaire (see Attachment B) must be completed in its entirety. Any questions left unanswered will reduce total points for this phase.
As stated in the Instructions to Offerors. Discounts, the price(s) herein can be discounted by _______%, if payment is made within ______ days. These payment terms shall apply to all purchases and to all payment methods.
Cooperative Purchasing allows other public agencies to piggyback on the City of Tucson’s contracts. Will your firm provide the City of Tucson, as the lead agency on this regional contract, a rebate in the form of a percentage of sales based upon the other agencies sales?
Please ensure that all required information is included with your response.
Please upload your response to the Evaluation Criteria.
Please upload your Pricing Proposal (if applicable).
Please upload your signed Offer and Acceptance form.
Please note: The City of Tucson is a public agency subject to public records laws. Therefore, all requests to withhold information from the public record must be accompanied by justification. Pricing will not be held confidential.
If you answered yes, then you must use this field to identify the sections of your submittal that you are requesting be withheld from public record.
If sections are not identified as confidential in this field, your request to hold information confidential may not be accepted.
Please note: The City of Tucson is a public agency subject to public records laws. Therefore, all requests to withhold information from the public record must be accompanied by justification. Pricing will not be held confidential.
In accordance with Instructions to Offerors - Exceptions to Contract Provisions, any exceptions that an offeror wishes to submit for the City's consideration must be indicated here in order to be considered.
Will Living Wage Requirements be a part of the resulting contract?
Please select the required language that should be included under Special Terms and Conditions for this project. Please select all that apply.
Please select the additional insurance coverages required for this project. Please select all that apply.
What is the initial term of the contract?
Please use the following format: one (1)
Even if you selected auto renewal, you need to add the initial term, i.e. one (1)
Will renewal options be given with this contract?
If you selected Auto Renewal, select No.
What is the renewal term of the contract?
Please use the following format: four (4)
If no extension options will be given or you selected automatic renewals, please enter "N/A".
Will you build the pricing table in OpenGov Procurement?
If you will be requesting the pricing to be provided by the vendor outside of the OpenGov system, have you attached the required document to this solicitation?
Do you have any attachments?
Q (CensusData Request : The City of Tucson): Hello, I am reaching out on behalf of Ryan Stow regarding the stop loss opportunity for The City of Tucson. In our initial evaluation of this case we noticed the census file is missing in provided documents. Could you please provide the same to proceed with quoting process. Thank You!
A: Please review the Scope of Work of this RFP. Also, within the RFP attachments, please see the "Request for Confidential Documents Form".
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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