REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR THIRD PARTY BILLING SERVICE FOR MUNICIPAL AMBULANCE SERVICES

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REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR THIRD PARTY BILLING SERVICE FOR MUNICIPAL AMBULANCE SERVICES Borough Clerk: Annemarie Krusznis, RMC Opening Date: October 16, 2018 TO THE: BOROUGH OF PARAMUS Municipal

1 REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR THIRD PARTY BILLING SERVICE FOR MUNICIPAL AMBULANCE SERVICES Borough Clerk: Annemarie Krusznis, RMC Opening Date: October 16, 2018 TO THE: BOROUGH OF PARAMUS Municipal Building Jockish Square Paramus, New Jersey MAYOR Richard A. LaBarbiera COUNCIL MEMBERS Ralph Amato Maria Elena Bellinger Chris DiPiazza Holly Tedesco-Santos Pat Verile Jeanne Weber Time: 11:00 A.M. Place: Borough Clerk s Office Please list below your name and address: Bidder: Address: 1

2 BOROUGH OF PARAMUS COUNTY OF BERGEN STATE OF NEW JERSEY NOTICE FOR REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS Public Notice is hereby given that on October 16, 2018 at 11:00 AM prevailing time, at the Municipal Building, Jockish Square, Paramus, New Jersey, the Mayor & Council will receive Sealed Proposals for the: THIRD PARTY BILLING SERVICE FOR MUNICIPAL EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES Specifications may be obtained at the office of the Borough Clerk, Municipal Building, Jockish Square, Paramus, New Jersey, during normal business hours 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, commencing Monday, September 17, 2018 or at Said proposals must be enclosed in a sealed envelope bearing the name and address of the bidder, and must be addressed to the Mayor and Council of the Borough of Paramus. All proposals must be accompanied by a cashier s check, certified check, or a bid bond, made payable to the Borough of Paramus in the amount of ten (10%) percent of the amount of the bid. The envelope must also indicate Proposals. No bidder shall be allowed to withdraw his bid for a period of sixty (60) days after the proposals or bids are opened. The Mayor & Council reserve the right to waive any informalities or defect in any bid, to reject any and all bids, or to accept such bids that, in the discretion of the Council, are in the best interest of the Borough. Bidders are required to comply with the requirements of P.L. 1975, c127. Bidders are also required to comply with P.L c.57, Business Registration Act. This certificate must accompany your bids. BY ORDER OF THE MAYOR & COUNCIL. ANNEMARIE KRUSZNIS, RMC BOROUGH CLERK 2

3 REQUESTS FOR PROPOSALS FOR THIRD PARTY BILLING SERVICE FOR MUNICIPAL EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES The Borough of Paramus ( Borough ) is seeking Proposals from qualified contractors to act as a third party claims billing, collection, recovery, and subrogation administrator for ambulance services provided by the Paramus Emergency Medical Services. The Borough will by using the Competitive contracting process for this service as outlined in N.J.S.A. 40:11-4.1, et seq. Other criteria relevant to each proposal may be evaluated before price is considered. The Contract shall be for a period of one (1) year, and the Borough shall have the option to renew the Contract for two (2) successive one (1) year periods, which shall be governed by the same terms and conditions as the first period. The Borough and the contractor may, at the conclusion of the first period, agree upon different terms and conditions to govern the successive contract periods, but a failure to agree upon different terms shall result in the terms and conditions of the first year controlling. The Paramus Emergency Medical Services responds to approximately 4,000 calls for service per year. The average mileage to any of the four area hospitals is 5 miles (one way). After the insurance payment is received, there shall be no further collection effort with respect to calls from Borough residents or Borough employees. The Borough reserves the right to visit the contractor s business location prior to contract award to help determine the contractor s ability to perform the required services. Subcontracting any portion of the contract is prohibited. Proposal pricing shall be based upon a percentage of funds collected (not billed). If the Borough wishes to cancel an individual charge, the contractor shall cease billing and receive no payment for that account. Over payment refund documentation will be forwarded to EMS Program Coordinator for approval. On a monthly basis the EMS Program Coordinator will forward a purchase order to the contractor for the full amount of the refunds for that month. The contractor will sign and return the purchase order to the EMS Program Coordinator who will then authorize a check to be drawn to the contractor for the refunded amount. The contractor will then pay the refunds. The refunded amount must be shown on the next monthly invoice as a negative income item. The contractor will need to provide documentation of the over payment refunds. 3

4 REPORTS The following items will be made available at the Borough s request and at no charge to the Borough: Various Customer Reports Status Reports Patient Summary Reports Billing Receivables Reports Closed Accounts Reports Billing A/R Reconciliation Reports NJ Quarterly Trip Statistics Pending Bills Reports Collection Reports Contractor Reports Open Account Reports Medicare/Medicaid Report The above will be supplied on a calendar month and calendar year basis and in a format deemed acceptable to the Borough. In addition, Collection Reports, which provide the following information about collections received, shall be supplied weekly: Where monies were received: Insurance payments, medical or commercial, with company name Medicare payments Individual payments Source of any other payments Samples of all reports must be submitted with all proposals. 4

5 All correspondence/invoices shall indicate that all payments shall be made payable to the Borough of Paramus. Any checks received that are not payable to Borough of Paramus shall be returned to the sender requesting they submit a check payable to the Borough of Paramus. All checks received for services rendered shall be forwarded to the Borough to the attention to the EMS Program Coordinator.. The successful contractor shall be responsible for all costs of supplying the services mentioned in this Request for Proposals to the Borough. Records must be maintained for seven (7) years in the event of an audit by Medicare or any other agency, including the Borough. Electronic filing for Medicare, NJ Medicaid and commercial insurance is required. All proposals must demonstrate knowledge of electronic filing with Medicare, NJ Medicaid and commercial insurance companies, and the ability to perform this service for the Borough. The Borough uses the State of New Jersey supplied ImageTrend Elite software for the data entry for all calls for Emergency Medical Services. The successful contractor must be able to obtain this information from the ImageTrend Elite software. During the term of the contract, the contractor shall make at least three (3) collection attempts and maintain a written record of same. After three (3) unsuccessful attempts within a reasonable time, the contractor shall prepare a report containing the name(s) of the patient(s), the date on which service was provided by the Paramus Emergency Medical Services, and the non-collected billing amount(s) to the Borough EMS Program Coordinator. The contractor will have no right and shall make no claim for payment against the Borough for the costs involved in the attempts to collect the funds. This claim processing is not to be confused with collection of bad debts. The contractor shall provide both a local and toll-free long distance telephone number in order to provide responses to patient s questions regarding services and charges billed. The contractor shall provide an adequate number of well-trained office staff, experienced in dealing with the elderly and qualified to answer patients questions. 5

6 Below are a series of questions that must be answered and submitted as an integral part of the proposal submission. The valuation and award of this contract will be based upon the information supplied by you. Three copies of your proposal must be submitted. FINANCIAL STRENGTH: Please provide copies of your company s annual financial statements for the last three (3) years. EXPERIENCE Years of experience as a third-party billing agency for pre-hospital EMS services: Years of experience with New Jersey pre-hospital EMS services and experience with NJ Medicaid and New Jersey Department of Health EMS licensing requirements: Number of third-party pre-hospital EMS billing clients: (provide list of names as appendix A to your proposal) Number of New Jersey third-party pre-hospital billing clients: (provide list of names as appendix B to your proposal) Years of experience with Medicare: OFFICE AND STAFFING Number of toll-free telephone lines: Number of telephone lines: Office location in miles from Paramus Borough Hall: Number of and experience of staff in local office to handle Paramus account: Experience of staff in local office handling the Paramus account: Will you dedicate one or more full-time individuals to handle the Borough s account (as opposed to distributing work among entire staff?) Yes No Estimated number of days between receipt of call sheet to initiation of billing 6

7 SOFTWARE Provide with your proposal a detailed description of the capabilities of your computer software. Please ensure that the description includes information relevant to the billing process and report generation. Do you currently have the capability to initiate electronic billing for pre-hospital EMS services to Medicare, NJ Medicaid, and commercial insurance companies? Yes No Do you currently have the ability to communicate with ImageTrend to obtain the patient call information? Yes NO PROPOSED COST TO THE BOROUGH OF PARAMUS Start up cost: Service Cost as a percentage of funds collected (NOT of charges billed) Year One Year Two Year Three % % % I hereby certify that the information provided with this proposal is true. I understand that should any of the representations made in this proposal turn out to false, this proposal may be rejected, and any contract awarded in reliance upon the representations made in this proposal may be rescinded or terminated at the discretion of the Borough of Paramus. Respectfully submitted, Signature: Corporate Seal Title Company Name Company Address: Date: 7

8 LIST OF CLIENTS FOR REFERENCE CHECK PURPOSES (Provide at least six. Attach additional pages if necessary) Name of Agency Municipality Contact Name Phone Number

9 CLIENT REFERENCE QUESTIONNAIRE (To be completed by References listed above. Please attach additional pages if necessary) Name of Client/EMS Provider : Name of Contact Person: Title of Contact Person: Date began doing business with vendor: Number of days between receipt of call sheet and billing initiation: Satisfaction re: timeliness of collections: Does vendor perform hospital bundle billing? Strength of vendor s services: Weakness of vendor s services: Approximate annual collections (excluding vendor s %): Number of ambulance calls per year: Quality of reports provided by vendor: Where are billing collections received (i.e., lockbox, etc.) How are collections deposited (i.e., sent to you for deposit, etc.) Overall satisfaction level of vendor service: Volume of service complaints from residents: 9

10 THIRD PARTY BILLING RFP REVIEW PROCESS Yes/No Bid Bond... Fidelity Bond... Aff. Action Evidence... Non-Collusion Affidavit... Corporate Ownership... State of NJ Business Registration Certificate... Financial Strength (0 to 5 points) Experience as Pre-Hospital EMS billing agency (0 to 5 points) Experience with NJ Pre-Hospital EMS, Medicaid and NJDOHHS (0 to 15 points) Number of pre-hospital EMS billing clients (0 to 2 points) Number of NJ pre-hospital EMS billing clients (0 to 5 points) NJ Client satisfaction questionnaire (0 to 10 points) Years of experience with Medicare (0 to 3 points) Number of toll-free phone lines (0 to 2 points) Number of telephone lines (0 to 2 points) Office location in miles from Paramus Borough Hall (0 to 2 points) Number of and experience of staff in local office (0 to 2 points) Will you have a F-T dedicated account manager (0 to 3 points) Estimated number of days from call sheet receipt to billing (0 to 11 points) 10

11 Computer software capabilities (0 to 3 points) Electronic billing to Medicare, NJ Medicaid, comm l ins. co. s (0 to 5 points) Cost (0 to 25 points) 11

PRELIMINARY OFFICIAL STATEMENT DATED JANUARY 26, 2018

This is a Preliminary Official Statement "deemed final" within the meaning of, and with the exception of certain information permitted to be omitted by, Rule 15c2-12 of the Securities and Exchange Commission,