Good afternoon. I am LaToya Clark-Forbes, Purchasing Assistant Manager and the Meeting Facilitator. I would like to call to order the final evaluation committee meeting for request for proposals number GEN-213-1079-P1, Third Party Administration for COBRA, Domestic Partner and Retiree Continuation Coverage for the Finance and Administrative Services Department, Human Resources Division. The time is 1.02 p.m. on April 27, 2026. This meeting is being held through Microsoft Teams. Representatives from the county are physically here in room 430 of the Governmental Center Building East, located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, or virtually through Teams. Attendees, please mute the microphones on your devices to limit background noise. This is a public meeting and is being recorded by Broward County. The voice recording will act as the official recording of the meeting. The recording will be made available on the Purchasing Division website under the RLI RFP repository. Information reviewed by the evaluation committee as part of the evaluation process will also be posted on the repository. This meeting has been publicly noticed. The purpose of this meeting is for the evaluation committee to hear the presentation from the single responsible vendor and make the determination rather to proceed with the single vendor by voice vote. At the initial evaluation committee meeting on April 7, 2026, the evaluation committee determined one vendor, Benefits Outsource Incorporated, to be both responsive and responsible and advanced to final evaluation taking place today. Meeting attendance will be recorded in the following ways. The Purchasing Division will record the attendance of county staff physically here in room 430. All virtual attendees, including county staff, please click on the link or scan the QR code that is currently listed in the Teams chat section to complete the sign-in sheet. For the attendees that cannot access link or QR code in the Teams chat, email the purchasing agent Desirene Lascott at D-L-E-S-C-O-T-T at Broward.org with the subject EC meeting attendance and indicate your name, your title, and the company you represent in the email body. We have a quorum present with the following evaluation committee members. Committee members, please stay present after your name is called. Delwyn Freeman, Assistant Director, Human Resources Division, Finance and Administrative Services Department. Present. Thank you. Gregory Q. Meyer, Assistant Director, Office of Public Communications. Present. Thank you. Jahan Garrasino, Administrative Officer Senior, Broward County Aviation Department. Present. Thank you. It is the evaluation committee's responsibility to review the vendor's submittals, to ensure solicitation requirements are met, and to evaluate the submittals to make a recommendation to award a contract. Each evaluation committee member was appointed by the county administrator to serve on this committee based on their experience. The evaluation committee members are responsible for following the county's established committee procedures to select vendors, which provide the services that are in the best interest of the county. At the discretion of the board, the evaluation committee members may be requested to substantiate their recommendation and discuss their submittal reviews. The cone of silence has been in effect since this solicitation's advertisement. Vendors are prohibited from discussing this solicitation with the commissioner's office, county staff, or a member of the evaluation committee. The cone of silence terminates when the awarding authority takes action, which ends the solicitation. During the cone of silence, inquiries regarding this solicitation should be directed to the project manager or the director of purchasing and or his designee. Also, vendors may communicate with designated representatives from the Office of Economic and Small Business Development at any time regarding the solicitations, small business enterprise, or county business enterprise participation. The summary of vendor rights regarding Broward County competitive solicitations was issued in the solicitation. The initial evaluation committee meeting minutes have been distributed to the evaluation committee members. Evaluation committee members, is there any discussion regarding the minutes? Not at this time. Thank you. May I have a motion to approve the minutes from the initial evaluation committee meeting? Aye. Delvin Freeman, I take a motion to approve the minutes from the initial evaluation committee meeting on April 7, 2026. Thank you, Mr. Freeman. May I have a second? Second from Greg Meyer. Thank you, Mr. Meyer. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. As stated previously at the initial evaluation committee meeting, the solicitation required vendors to state whether they accept Broward County's standard terms and conditions or, if they do not accept them, to identify the agreement provisions and vendors' proposed changes. Benefits Outsource Incorporated accepted the county's standard terms and conditions. The next order of business is the vendor presentation. In accordance with Section 286.0113 of the Florida Statutes, presentations and questions and answers are closed to the public. Only committee members, county staff, and the presenting vendor and their team will be in the closed portion of this meeting. Members of the public will be excused from the meeting to permit the start of the closed presentation session. Once the presentation and Q&A session have concluded, members of the public will be invited to return to the public portion of the meeting, during which the evaluation committee will conduct a voice vote. Members of the public may provide an email address in the chat to be notified when to return to the public portion of this meeting. The vendor was asked to provide an electronic copy of its presentation to the purchasing division prior to this meeting. The presentation received has been distributed to the evaluation committee members. The presentation topics in length were identified during the initial evaluation committee meeting and distributed to the presenting vendor. The vendor has 15 minutes for presentation, followed by an unlimited question and answer session, and five minutes for setup. The timekeeper will be purchasing agent, Desirene Lascott. At this time, we will move into the closed portion of this meeting. The single vendor presenting, Benefits Outsource Incorporated. Please remain in the meeting. Members of the public are requested to leave the virtual meeting room. As a reminder, please continue to monitor your emails for when to rejoin the public portion of this meeting. This meeting is now closed. Benefits Outsource, good afternoon. Good afternoon. Attendees can be viewed in the team's participants panel, and in a moment displayed on the screen will be a list of county staff. Please review to ensure only your team members and county staff are in attendance. You can confirm with us when you've reviewed the participant panel to ensure only county staff and your team is in the meeting. So, Marilyn Jones, can you hear us from the county through teams? I can. Okay. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Have you reviewed the participants panel? I have. Okay. Are we good to go? Is it only county staff and your team? Yes. Perfect. Who should we make a presenter through Microsoft Teams for this presentation? I am. Okay. You should have the ability to share. Okay. It's not working? Oh, there we go. Okay. There we go. Your team will now have five minutes to set up. Purchasing staff, please start the five-minute setup timer, and you can let us know when you're ready to begin. Okay. Thank you. Can everyone see my screen? Yes, we can. Okay. Okay. So, we're ready to start. Okay. Give us a moment. We will start the 15-minute timer. We'll let you know when to begin. Okay. You can begin. Good afternoon, everyone. With the 15 minutes allotted, I'm going to get right into the presentation to respond to the questions that were presented. Eligibility and qualifying administration. BOI established process and inherent system will prevent missed or delayed COBRA notices. As it relates to COBRA and domestic partners, we have a dedicated account manager assigned to BCG that monitors all the administrative processes. Terminations are uploaded onto BOI secure server on a weekly basis. An automatic email alerts the account manager when the file receives. Files are uploaded. Any errors are detected systematically. Those are addressed by the account manager and resolved accordingly. If a file is not received as scheduled by the account manager, then they will automatically notify BCG. As it relates to the retirees, due to the fact that we do have many walk-ins into our office, it's a similar situation whereby BCG does report weekly on our secure server retirees. The file is reviewed prior to being uploaded so that we may not duplicate any of the retirees that we've processed in-house. The duplicates are excluded prior to uploading the file for processing. The file is uploaded, the same errors detected or addressed by our account manager accordingly. If the file is not received in a timely manner, then the account manager notifies BCG. As it relates to complex scenarios, complex scenarios are on a case-by-case basis. Retro-terminations are managed through a coordinated process with the carrier and BCG. Common scenarios include terminations per request, non-payment, and secondary events. For example, death of a primary with dependents, notified 60 days, or notified six months later. If BOI receives a notification within 60 days, according to the DOL timeline, the primary coverage is retroactively terminated. The dependents are eligible for up to 36 months of COBRA. Whereabouts, if the notification of death is reported after the 60 days, outside of DOL guidance, the termination requires coordination with the carrier and or the plan sponsor. As it relates to multiple qualifying events, a standard qualifying event may quickly turn into something complex. For example, an employee terminates with dependents. I get their 18 months of COBRA. Then the prime is approved for a Social Security extension. Social Security extension requires an 11-month, additional 11 months of COBRA. Thereby, the prime and the dependents are now extending COBRA for 29 months. And then let's say there's a divorce. If there's a divorce, the dependents will receive up to 36 months of COBRA. The primary will remain at the 29 months because this is a secondary event. Divorce is a secondary event which only impacts the dependent. Therefore, timing, accurate documentation, and strict DOL compliance drives the determination. COBRA notices and compliance, generating and delivering required COBRA notices. We have a termination. BCG is required to notify BOI within 30 days of that loss of coverage. BOI has 14 days of notice from BCG to provide the information to the qualified beneficiary. The qualified beneficiary has 60 days to make an election of COBRA. In addition to the 60 days, the qualified beneficiary has 45 days from election to make their first payment to enroll on COBRA. And the qualified beneficiary makes that premium, make those premium payments and are enrolled. Guidelines, DOI guidelines require that they are extended a 30-day grace period to receive to make their monthly premium payments to continue on COBRA. All premiums collected are provided to BCG and the carriers on a monthly basis with an appropriate roster dictating who the payments apply to. There are updates, eligibility updates, which may affect the status of a continuum, such as open enrollment, survivorship, Social Security. And then coverage terminates for qualified beneficiary when their COBRA period expires for nonpayment, and as well when they request termination in writing to BOI. So those are the guidelines for qualified beneficiaries and COBRA notices that conforms with the DOL regulations. Enrollment management, BOI ensures compliance with the Department of Labor requirements, timelines to review, and system control capabilities. Our system tracks COBRA periods based on the qualified event, terminates coverage for nonpayment after the 30-day grace period. It also generates a HIPAA notice for early termination when we are requested by the continuant to discontinue their coverage. The system also generates conversion notices. These notices are to notify the COBRA continuant that their expiration period on COBRA is ending. Those notices go out at the 180-day mark, as well as a 60-day mark to alert them that their COBRA is ending. Our account manager reviews system-generated eligibility reports on a monthly basis. As it relates to reinstatement and terminations, for reinstatement, the two methods, one is upon receipt of initial COBRA payment. As mentioned before, the COBRA continuant has 105 days from their notice in order to enroll on COBRA. In that vein, we will reinstate that COBRA back to the effective date. And also, when the system terminates COBRA coverage when a member does not meet the 30-day grace period, if, in fact, the envelope is postmarked prior to that date, then we will also reinstate their coverage. As it relates to terminations, terminations are processed through the portal due to coverage term and non-payment or member written requests. BOI provides Brown County government monthly reporting to this effect, as well as carriers via an EDI file, secure emails and portals. And then the members are notified through formal notice. The member experience and customer service. BOI is a service-conscious TPA that works closely with our clients as a trusted partner. We pride ourselves on being local right here in the area and has an open-door policy where our members can walk in, they're welcome, without an appointment. Live customer service is here to help all of our members, telephone and, of course, in person. We have that personalized support from our dedicated and trained professionals. We also provide a toll-free number, which they can conveniently call us at any time. Our online portal is accessible 24-7. Secure payment methods are made via check, recurring ACH, credit cards, and FRS. We work with BCG staff and carrier reps to further enhance our member experience. Also, as it relates to the member experience and customer service, BOI measures satisfaction through accessibility resolution and communication. We monitor all different stages of services. We monitor performance metrics, issue resolution, quality and compliance, and communication. Most importantly, we focus on the first contact resolution in order to reduce any repeat recurrences. Additionally, client engagement and feedback. We do conduct an annual client meeting. Quarterly performance measures are conducted. And we do have ongoing measures with our member satisfaction through continuous feedback. Right now, we are in the process of evaluating a formal process for member satisfaction. BOI measures success not only by metrics, but by resolution, compliance accuracy, and the overall experience for both partners and members. Resolution and escalation. Our approach ensures timely resolution, open communications, and results that our partners and members can rely on. Our escalation process includes issue intake, where we receive the information via phone, email, mail, fax, evaluation. We review to determine the scope, impact, and any potential systematic concern. Escalation and coordination. Leadership may include subject matter experts. Experts and external partners may engage in the situations as needed. Action. We document, address, contributing factors. We coordinate and follow up to ensure accuracy of the facts. Follow up and validation. Resolution confirmed. We keep our partners informed throughout the process. And we communicate the resolve to the member or the employee, whomever the situation may affect. And reinforcement. We heighten our team's awareness to better serve our members and partners. Thank you so much. And right now, we will entertain any questions. Thank you for your presentation. Are there any questions from the evaluation committee members? Not from Greg Meyer. Good afternoon, Delwin Freeman. I have one follow-up question regarding the membership satisfaction survey, or actually two parts for that. How close do you think you are to that? And if so, once completed, would that be shared with Broward County government? Okay. I'm going to have Juan address that, please. Juan. Yes. Hello. So, yes, I am Juan Selares. I'm the director of marketing here at BOI. So, right now, as Marlene said, we are formalizing a more structured customer satisfaction program. We are currently evaluating several platforms and methodologies to ensure that we implement a solution that provides more meaningful and actionable insights, not just data collection. So, as soon as we make that decision with the platform and methodology, yes, we will share that with you. We are in the process of deciding and having conversations with vendors when it comes to the customer satisfaction. But we will have, for sure, an annual survey. But, yes, we will let you know as soon as we have the final platform. Okay? Thank you. And just to clarify, the second part of that, when it is finalized and the survey results are received, would that be something that you would share with Broward County government, or is that an internal process? No, no, no, once we have the reporting, I mean, we will send you a report with the results of that customer satisfaction. But, as I said, we are evaluating different platforms right now. Thank you. The project manager would like to do a follow-up question before we move to the next EC member. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. This is Esther Mitchell. Would you please, I believe that you said, Mr. Castellaris, would you please share the ETA as to when you're going to finalize evaluating the platform's methodology, just so that we can have an idea of when we could expect this to be completed? Thank you. Yes. Like, we don't have a date, but, I mean, is there a precise date that you would like to receive? I mean, one, you would like to receive this because, I mean, as I said right now, we are having conversations and meetings with different vendors, but I would say, like, maybe, like, in two weeks. I don't know if that makes sense for you or if you were looking for something before that time. No, not necessarily a specific time, but thank you for that, and I guess sometime this year we'll hear more. Thank you. Yes. Okay. Perfect. And, Mr. Freeman, to confirm, you were done with your questions. I had maybe two more. Okay. Go ahead. Could you share some information as far as, you mentioned the accessibility of the portals and online. How mobile-friendly, you know, and computer-friendly are your ways of making contact and submitting claims? Is there an app or is it just, you know, website accessible but on all mobile platforms? I'm going to let our subject matter experts speak to that, sir. Toshi DK. Good morning. The platform is very mobile accessible for making COBRA enrollment elections payments, and then members are able to see their payment history, and they're able to see all their mail documents. Thank you very much. And my other question, number six, under resolutions and escalations, members and partner. Number five, you mentioned follow-up and validation. Partners will be kept informed throughout. I think that is an important piece for us here. But how specifically is there an access that, I mean, a website we can access to resolutions? Is it via email, calls? Can you just enlighten me a little bit on that process for follow-ups and resolutions? Yes, sir. What we would do as it relates to follow-up and resolution, we will definitely keep BCG informed of any issue that may come up via email. That is our most expedited and concise way of communicating with the client. Okay. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Okay. John, Mr. Garacino. Good afternoon, John Garacino. You mentioned that you have your staff there in Davie that handles all the calls, the emails, the walk-ins. How many people would you say that you have that handle Broward County former employees and COBRA participants? We had the account manager and a team of five individuals. Okay. And what would you say the overall ratio is of overall participants to the folks that would handle our staff, or the ratio of our participants versus your staff? Can you repeat that question for me again? Sure. You said you have the account manager and the team there that handle Broward County participants. What would you say is the ratio of the number of participants to staff members available to handle our employees and other participants? I would say probably two to one. Two participants to every one of your staff members? Okay. So, we have the five team members and the manager. So, everybody is trained to handle BCG's clients. So, it would be, you know, whomever's available when the walk-in comes in. And, of course, the account manager is always there to manage those individuals. If I'm answering, I don't know if I'm answering your question correctly. I guess where I'm trying to go is when it comes to, in the contingency, what's your contingency for a high-volume event? We have some sort of open enrollment. You get flooded with calls and whatnot. You have your six people there. How do you handle any sort of overflow if we had a large capacity occurrence? We have a total of 19 members at DOI. Everyone is versed as it relates to customer service and COBRA and retiree administration. So, if there is a high volume of calls that comes in, that would be other members on the team would be our overflow as it relates to addressing the needs of the continuance and the members. Okay. Thank you. In regards to your COBRA notices and the retiree notices, I was reading through the sample notices that were in your submittal. And I noted that there's a, under the how can I make payments for COBRA participants, there's a $25 convenience fee for one-time transactions. And in your presentation, you mentioned that there was, you do offer reoccurring transactions. When or where is the COBRA participant notified that they have that option so they don't incur that fee? Okay. I'm going to let Toshi take that. So, when they go online, they have the option of setting up recurring ACH. When they go online, it will automatically let them know they can either make a one-time payment and that incurs a $25 convenience fee, or you could set up a recurring payment and the system will automatically tell them that there's no fee. Also, if they contact our office, we will let them know that they can make a payment one-time, they can mail a check, or set up a recurring ACH. And we also allow the retirees to know that they have the option of signing up for FRS if they also did not know that. Thank you. And on the retiree notice, are they also notified that if they decide to make it a one-time transaction each time that they'll have that $25 fee? Yes, because the only way to do it is going online and the system automatically have it that they'll know that there's a $25 convenience fee. It will tell them there are two options, make a one-time payment or set up a recurring ACH, and it has the fee at the bottom to let them know. Are there any written notices sent out similar to the COBRA notice that would inform them of this? No, because it's only online when you get the fee. Okay. Thank you. No further questions. Okay. Thank you. Any questions from the project manager? Good afternoon. Tochi, would you please share with the team as to why do you guys charge a convenience fee if someone is making a one-time payment rather than having a recurring payment online? This is a platform. We have no say in that fee. Esther, just to answer your question, this is the end. This is just a pass-through fee that's assessed by the vendor. BOI has no control over the fee that is charged. We do discourage the members to not utilize this function because of the cost. Oftentimes, I mean, it's very rare that we'll have someone, a retiree or a COBRA member, utilize, I mean, pay and, you know, receive, agree to pay and VSS that fee. One of the, just to touch back on what Jahan said, the notification, I mean, since it's online, when a member contacts us to sign up to go, you know, make a payment online in the notification that we, instructions that we send them on how to access the system, we include the fee that is charged for credit cards. It's simply a convenience fee, and we do not recommend it, but that documentation does include it. So, we encourage them to walk in and come in and make a payment. We encourage them to sign up for ACH. There's no cost as it relates to that. There's no cost for checks, as well as if they sign up for FRS. Thank you for that. Let's talk a little bit about what controls prevent billing errors and financial discrepancies. As it relates to which aspect? I'm just trying to ensure that members are being charged correctly. So, I just want to know what controls prevent billing errors or financial discrepancies. So, let me give you an example. It's pretty rare, but it could happen. So, someone says, I sent you a payment. No, you didn't. How do you handle those financial discrepancies? Okay. So, if someone sends us a payment, we have a lockbox that gives an account to capture those payments. They have also the option to mail it in to our office. So, if someone indicates that they send us a payment and we don't see it posted to their account, the first thing that we ask for them is to provide us with the check number or just the payment information, the means by which it was sent. And we, one thing we can't account for is the postal service. We will do due diligence to check with the lockbox just to do, I mean, open a ticket or whatever we need to be in full communication as well as in our office to get a result for the member. So, if we cannot find the check, we'll advise the member. I mean, the first thing they have to check is to see if it was cached on their account. Once they confirm that it was cached, we will do a research with the lockbox as well as internally to make sure that there was no incorrect posting because there was a typo, you know, the writing was incorrect on the member's check that was sent in. So, those, you know, those are things that could happen. So, once we receive confirmation and that there is, you know, no payment was received, we'll advise a member. So, those are some of our processes as to making sure that, you know, each person is assigned a unique ID. So, if they don't include it on the check, when the check gets, you know, gets to us, there is a database for the name and the address has to match before they proceed, you know, any proceeding and posting of the payment. Thank you for that. And one follow-up question to that. So, what happens to the member's coverage while this issue is being resolved? So, there, the mem, I mean, there is a notation that is indicated on the member's record that payment was sent, whatever the conversation was, is indicated in the system. We are aware, I mean, they, we will never turn someone's account based off them being behind missing one payment. So, I mean, typically the research process takes about 24 to 48 hours. They will not be terminated. We will follow up until we receive a resolution and that, you know, account is flagged and notated as, you know, the member has sent the payment. We're in research and we will not, there will be no proceeding to terminate the account because of. Thank you. No further questions. Yes, Mr. Freeman. Just one general follow-up question. Similar to how you mentioned undergoing and evaluating potential surveys for the future, in general, anything that you can share, are there any other future plans or platform changes, i.e. the platform that charges the fees or any other website changes in the near future that may potentially change an interaction between you all, the account manager and borrower county government, or impact its members that you're aware of? Mr. Freeman, at this point, we are not aware of any changes, but we do know that our vendor does eventually update their systems, enhance the systems for whatever reason to make it more proficient and effective. Any time there is a change in the system, we do notify BCG of the impact that it may have, if there's an impact on the members. So, we do have a really great relationship with BCG in that respect. But as of right now, we don't know of any updates that are in the plans to happen that's going to affect the members. Thank you. Are there any other follow-up questions? Okay. Thank you, Benefits Outsource, for your presentation. You're welcome. Thank you. The single presenter, Benefits Outsource Incorporated, has now completed their presentation and answered all questions. At this time, as the presentation and question and answer session has concluded, the meeting is back in an open and public portion of the meeting. In lieu of individual scoring, the next order of business is the voice vote of the single vendor. The evaluation committee can exercise their option via a voice vote to accept, benefit, outsource, ink, or consider the alternative to recommend rejection. Are there any questions from the evaluation committee members regarding the voice vote? Hearing none, we will proceed with a motion. May I have a motion and voice vote with respect to the single, responsive, and responsible vendor, Benefits Outsource Incorporated, and half-purchasing submit the proposed recommendation of ranking for approval, or may I have a motion to recommend rejection? I, Delwin Freeman, would like to make a motion to accept Benefits Outsource, Inc., and half-purchasing submit the proposed recommendation of ranking for approval. Thank you, Mr. Freeman, may I have a second? John Garasino, I second the motion. Thank you. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. The evaluation committee recommendation will be posted on the Purchasing Division's website for three business days as a proposed recommendation of ranking. Following this three-day period, if no objections to the proposed ranking have been received in writing by the Purchasing Director, a final recommendation of ranking will be posted for five business days. If no vendor timely objects or protests, the ranking shall be final, provided that no county commissioner objects within five business days after receiving notice from the Purchasing Division of the final ranking. As a reminder, all information reviewed by the evaluation committee is posted on the Purchasing Division website repository, including the closed portion of this meeting. Committee members, is there any other business that needs to be discussed today? Okay. Hearing none, I would like to thank Benefits Outsource, Inc. for their presentation today. Thank you also to the evaluation committee for your participation. The final evaluation committee meeting is adjourned. The time is 1.49 p.m. Thank you, everyone. Thank you so much. Thank you, everyone.