Single Source Procurement: End of AIDS - Reaching Young Injection Drug Users

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.

The Syringe Exchange Programs (SEP) were established in 1992 to address the HIV epidemic in injection drug users. To become an SEP, an organization must complete a lengthy process to be authorized by DOH in order to distribute and collect syringes with injection drug users. There are currently 24 programs authorized to provide comprehensive harm reduction prevention services, which includes the operation of a syringe exchange program. There has been continued success in this program, which has been demonstrated by the documented dramatic decline in HIV infection among injection drug users (IDUs), primarily attributable to this initiative. The data signifies that syringe exchange is one of the most successful HIV prevention initiatives of the NYS DOH, AIDS Institute, based on the numbers of lives and health care dollars saved. In 1992, 52 percent of newly diagnosed AIDS cases were among IDUs. In 2012, IDU risk accounted for only 3 percent of new HIV diagnoses.

This request is made up of two components:

  1. SEP expansion and enhancements of existing services.
    Additional funding will be used for one newly authorized SEP contractor, three newly authorized program expansions, and to provide one-time funding to one established SEP in need of a new vehicle to expand its SEP services into unserved neighboring counties via mobile services.
  2. Implement End of the AIDS Epidemic strategies.
    To provide End of AIDS funding to eighteen (18) of the current SEP contracts to quickly reach Young IDUs, which is a hard to reach high risk special population and is fueling the rise in heroin use and drug overdoses in New York State.

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:

  • Identifying persons with HIV who remain undiagnosed and linking them to health care;
  • 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
  • Facilitating access to Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for high-risk HIV negative persons.

The current contracts funded under this program were selected and approved by OSC through a previous non-competitive grant award. These organizations represent the only eligible providers for this funding. Each budget under Component 1 must be in line with and comparable to all other SEP's providing the same or similar services. New providers and programs will be continually monitored over the course of their contract. This monitoring, which takes place at a minimum bi-annually, includes a review of the contract's program and fiscal performance. The funding awarded for End of AIDS (Component 2) is divided equally to the eligible contractors.

Procurement / Program Name End of AIDS - Reaching Young Injection Drug Users
Contractor Name(s) Multiple – Please see attached.
Contract Period 7/1/2014 – 6/30/2018
Contract Number(s) Multiple – Please see attached.