ICAN/FE-ABD CBO Request For Proposals

The Community Service Society of New York (CSS) invites non-profit community-based organizations (CBOs) to participate in this Request for Proposals (RFP) for one or more new subcontractors to provide Independent Consumer Advocacy Network (ICAN) and/or the Facilitated Enrollment for the Aged, Blind and Disabled (FE-ABD) services in the Central New York and Thousand Islands region. The ICAN grant will be for $75,000-$91,667 for 10 months ($90,000-$110,000 annualized) to provide ombudsprogram services to Medicaid beneficiaries who need long term care and behavioral health services. The FE-ABD grant will be for $40,000-$50,000 (for 6 months) to provide public health insurance application assistance program for people who are aged 65 or older, or who are certified blind or disabled.

Applicants are welcome to bid for solely the ICAN grant or the FE-ABD grant, or both. Preference will be given to applicants who apply for both programs. CSS seeks to fund a CBO or CBOs that have a strong track record of serving diverse populations, including but not limited to consumers from racially, ethnically, culturally, geographically and linguistically diverse communities, as well as organizations that serve people with mental and physical disabilities.

Applications will be due on April 28, 2023 with an anticipated start date of July 1, 2023. Award announcement has been postponed to June 2, 2023.  More detail on RFP timeline is provided below.

Important Dates 

ICAN FE-ABD Central NY RFP 2023

Questions and Answers

CSS received the following questions from potential applicants.  Our answers follow below:

• What are the reasons these two contacts are terminating mid-year with the current provider?
  • The prior subcontract elected to withdraw due to emerging programmatic priorities.
• Please elaborate and provide examples of what is meant by “assisting with health care decision-making and self-directing care” (p. 6).
  • ICAN does not provide care management or care coordination. Rather, the program’s aim is to empower Medicaid recipients to effectively manage their own care, with assistance from their MLTC plan. For example, a consumer may contact ICAN because they want help getting discharged from a nursing home back to the community with homecare supports. The ICAN counselor can advise them about their options, and how the process works. The counselor can also execute parts of this process in concert with or on behalf of the consumer. But the ultimate choice of whether to return home, and under what conditions, is up to the consumer. The counselor may inform the consumer of the potential risks of different scenarios to ensure the consumer makes a well-informed decision.
• Please provide prior year numbers served by County by contract for enrollment assistance.
  • FE-ABD – Due to the short turn-around as a result of the unanticipated issuance of a NYSDOH RFP for FE-ABD services, CSS is no longer procuring an enrollment partner through this RFP.
  • ICAN – CSS suggests 150 cases closed per year as an appropriate minimum baseline for this region.
• Is the expectation that in-home services will be provided or just a location to provide face to face?
  • Yes, the ICAN contract requires home visits if either requested by the consumer or determined to be necessary. For example, a person with disabilities may require this as a reasonable accommodation in order to receive effective assistance from ICAN. However, this requirement remains temporarily suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, even prior to the pandemic it was very uncommon for a home visit to be requested or deemed necessary. So while the ability to conduct them is a requirement of the contract, they rarely occur.
• Please clarify the conflict related to co-location of service provider.
  • CSS’s standard subcontract agreement includes the following provision:“Subcontractor represents and warrants that it does not possess any interest, directly or indirectly, that would or may conflict in any manner with the performance or rendering of services described in this Agreement or any attachments hereto. Subcontractor further represents and warrants that none of its directors, officers, members, partners, or employees has any interest or shall acquire any interest, directly or indirectly, that would or may conflict in any manner with the performance or rendering of the services so described, and Subcontractor further represents and warrants that it shall not employ any person in the performance of this Agreement having such interest or possible interest.”ICAN currently has a few subcontractors who are co-located with Medicaid service providers. CSS requires these partners to disclose this potential conflict of interest, and explain the steps they have taken to prevent any actual conflict from arising.