Single Source Procurement: Youth Access Program - Targeted Health Care Services for High Risk YMSM

Pursuant to New York State Finance Law § 163.10(b), The New York State Department of Health is presenting the following summary of relevant circumstances, and material and substantial reasons why a competitive procurement was not feasible.

On June 29, 2014, Governor Cuomo made an important announcement, in which he detailed a three-point plan to "Bend the Curve" and move us closer to the end of the AIDS epidemic in New York State. The goal is to reduce the number of new HIV infections to just 750 (from an estimated 3,000) by 2020.

The three-point plan includes:

  1. Identifying persons with HIV who remain undiagnosed and linking them to health care;
  2. Linking and retaining persons diagnosed with HIV in health care and maintaining them on antiretroviral therapy to maximize HIV viral load suppression so they remain healthy and to prevent further transmission; and
  3. Facilitating access to Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for high-risk HIV negative persons.

The Youth Access Programs (YAP) was identified as a way to achieve the goals within the three-point plan as mentioned above. YAPs currently provide low-threshold clinical services to adolescents/young adults who are at high risk for HIV (aged 13-24 years) in targeted and accessible community-based settings to meet their immediate health care and social service needs. The YAP model is also intended to identify new infections in adolescents/young adults whose HIV status is unknown or positive adolescents/young adults who are not in care and connect them promptly to HIV/AIDS care. Another important focus of this model is prevention- connecting high risk youth who present to ongoing primary health care and needed psychosocial and supportive services.

Additional funding will enable increased emphasis on prevention, treatment and care of young men who have sex with men (YMSM). A review of newly diagnosed HIV cases by transmission risk from 2002-2012 (NYSDOH/AI/BHAE Dec. 2013) indicates that MSM consistently represent the largest proportion of new infections. Furthermore, the age group from 13-29 years represents the majority of the newly diagnosed HIV cases. The effects of HIV chronic illness on quality of life for the infected and affected, the lifetime costs of treatment and care, combined with the potential increase reservoir for transmission of HIV, demands a public health response to address the health needs of YMSM. Additional funding will allow for increased outreach to engage YMSM, improved linkage to continuous HIV care and treatment, and averted new infections. Notably, given the advances in treatment as prevention, this funding will support assessment for and, if appropriate, linkage to Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) and Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP).

We are requesting to add $150,000 per year for the next two years to the three contracts listed below. This funding will allow these contractors to increase emphasis on prevention, treatment and care of YMSM and will allow them to provide services specifically to YMSM. These three contracts were originally selected through the following competitive procurement in 2011: HIV Youth Access Program. Four contracts were awarded funding from this procurement for the HIV Youth Access Program (Component C of the Request For Applications). Three of the four contracts have been selected to receive an increase to their contract. The funding is intended to assist in reaching the largest number of YMSM. Therefore, contractors serving the NYC region were selected.

Procurement / Program Name Youth Access Program - Targeted Health Care Services for High Risk YMSM
Contractor Name(s) Multiple – please see attached
Contract Period 7/1/2014 – 6/30/2016
Contract Number(s) Multiple – please see attached