Single Source Procurement: Targeted Transgender Health Care Services

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 requested multi-year single source contracts for a 5 year period will partner with existing transgender-serving providers to focus increased emphasis on prevention, treatment and care of transgender individuals. This population, based on studies and data, is at extremely high risk for the acquisition or transmission of HIV. 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 transgender individuals. These new contracts will allow for increased outreach to engage transgender adolescents and adults who are not connected to ongoing care, provide HIV/HCV/STD testing and other health care services in a transgender-friendly setting, and link those who are HIV + to ongoing HIV care and treatment. HIV-/unknown status individual's will be connected to ongoing transgender-friendly primary care services, including Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) and Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) promotion and initiation of regimens as appropriate.

Program design will require enhanced non-traditional work hours, mobile medical outreach and use of peers – inclusive of social networks and social media as means to engage transgender individuals in care. Also, this new project will ensure adolescent and adult program collaboration to reach both transgender adolescents and adults and ensure coordinated and population-specific services. The findings from this pilot project will be used to develop the basis for program standards and expectations to be incorporated into a competitive procurement following the completion of this project. Future contracts for this project are anticipated to be competitively procured.

Procurement / Program Name Targeted Transgender Health Care Services
Contractor Name(s) Multiple – Please see attached
Contract Period 7/1/2014 – 6/30/2019
Contract Number(s) C029940 – C029942