Approve third amendment to Agreement No. 18-218 with BHC Heritage Oaks Hospital to extend the term of the Agreement through December 31, 2021 and add funding in the amount of $347,500 for 2021-22; for a new contract maximum of $2,603,307 for the period of June 1, 2018 through December 31, 2021 for the provision of After-Hours Access and Crisis Services. (No general fund impact) (Larsen)

Approve third amendment to Agreement 18-218 with BHC Heritage Oaks Hospital to extend the term of the Agreement through December 31, 2021 and add funding in the amount of $347,500 for fiscal year 2021-22; for a new contract maximum of $2,603,307 for the period of June 1, 2018 through December 31, 2021 for the provision of After-Hours Access and Crisis Services.

In June 2018, when Agreement No. 18-218 was entered into with BHC Heritage Oaks Hospital, the crisis navigation services provided under this agreement were designed to build out the crisis continuum in Yolo County, replacing Yolo County Health and Human Services Agency’s (HHSA) previous 24/7 clinician response to local hospital emergency rooms and law enforcement (previous Scopes A2 and A3). Since then the crisis continuum in Yolo County has continued to evolve, Now, local ER staff has taken over crisis assessments in their hospitals while HHSA/contractor staff, act as Crisis Navigators, providing service eligibility and medical necessity review, as well as, appropriate acute inpatient psychiatric placement arrangements for Yolo County beneficiaries. County staff manages the daytime Navigation response and Heritage Oaks Hospital Access Line staff manage the after-business hours’ Navigation response. Law enforcement crisis response is now subsumed within the Co-Responder Project.
 
As such, Agreement No. 18-218 now only has two service elements, as detailed below:

 

Provide triage services to calls coming into the 24/7 Behavioral Health (mental health and substance use services) Access Line for HHSA and assess and appropriately disposition service calls, urgent support requests and crisis calls to support the community. These services are provided 24 hours a day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year.

Provide after-hours community-based crisis response services to anyone in Yolo County who comes into contact with law enforcement during a psychiatric crisis to reduce the cost of residential placement and psychiatric hospitalization, reduce emergency room visits and incarceration for residents experiencing a psychiatric crisis, facilitate recovery, and avoid future crises. 

Approval of this amendment will prevent a gap in state-required 24/7 Access Line Services while the County incorporates the current MHSA Innovation Crisis NOW learning and redesign of the crisis care and response system.

Performance Measures are included in the Second Amendment and are not being modified by the Third Amendment.

On December 20, 2017, Yolo County Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) from qualified community-based organizations to provide After Hours Access and Crisis Services. The RFP was open for 6 weeks, and staff offered potential bidders an opportunity to ask questions during a Mandatory Bidders’ Conference on January 3, 2018.  Bidders were offered the opportunity to submit proposals by dropping off a paper proposal directly at HHSA.

HHSA received two proposals from this solicitation.  A Proposal Review Committee was formed that included three HHSA employees from different branches, and two members from outside entities include behavioral health, emergency services, law enforcement, and the community. The two proposals were evaluated, and because scoring results were very close, it was recommended that individual interviews be conducted in order to determine the best qualified bidder.

The proposal submitted by BHC Heritage Oaks Hospital was selected as the top choice by all members of the Proposal Review Committee, and was evaluated and determined to meet all the required qualifications necessary to successfully provide these services. 

Additional information regarding the Competitive Bid Process is provided below, including a summary of the RFP evaluation criteria.