Special Notice / Hearing: None__
Vote Required: Majority
To: Honorable Board of Supervisors
From: Louise F. Rogers, Chief, San Mateo County Health
Srija Srinivasan, Acting Director, Public Health, Policy and Planning
Subject: Amendment to the Agreement with Public Health Foundation Enterprises, Inc. dba Heluna Health for the Recruitment, Hiring, Management, and Oversight of Personnel
RECOMMENDATION:
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Adopt a resolution authorizing an amendment to the agreement with Public Health Foundation Enterprises, Inc. dba Heluna Health for the recruitment, hiring, management and oversight of personnel, extending the term from June 30, 2021 to December 31, 2021 and increasing the amount payable by $2,500,000, to an amount not exceed $6,000,000.
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BACKGROUND:
On May 26, 2020, County Health addressed the Board with its proposed plan to increase the contact investigation and tracing workforce of the Public Health, Policy and Planning (PHPP) Division’s Communicable Disease Control (CD) program as needed for the COVID-19 mitigation strategy. Contact investigation and tracing are core capabilities of the PHPP infrastructure needed to respond to and control the spread of COVID-19. In San Mateo County (County), contact investigation and tracing has been a critical CD program tool for responding to any one of the 87 communicable diseases they address each year. The COVID-19 pandemic requires significantly scaling up that capability.
In March 2020, PHPP received County staff on loan from other departments within the County to temporarily perform contact tracing.
In October 2020, under a contract with the State of California, Public Health Foundation Enterprises, Inc. dba Heluna Health (Heluna) began providing six contact tracers to the CD program.
On December 4, 2020, the County directly entered into a contract with Heluna to provide 25 contact tracers to the CD program to immediately cover weekends and holidays. This agreement was most recently amended on March 1, 2021, to increase the number of contact tracers and to increase the not to exceed amount to $3,500,000.
Starting in January 2021, county staff on loan from other departments began to return to their home departments.
DISCUSSION:
Due to the increase in COVID-19 variants and the number of yet to be vaccinated residents in San Mateo County, the need for contact tracing is still present for our community. The CD program would therefore like to request an extension on their agreement with Heluna, and increase the amount payable by $2,500,000, to an amount not exceed $6,000,000. Amending this contract to retain contact tracers as provided by Heluna enables the County to retain the needed workforce, maintain continuity of services and return the borrowed County workforce to their home departments.
The agreement and resolution have been reviewed and approved by County Counsel as to form.
The resolution contains the County’s standard provisions allowing further amendment of the County fiscal obligations by a maximum of $25,000 (in aggregate).
It is anticipated that the County will have 75-115 FTE contact tracers, based on the State’s recommendation of at least 15 FTE contact tracers for every 100,000 residents.
PERFORMANCE MEASURE:
|
Measure |
FY 2020-2 Estimated |
FY 2021-22 Projected |
|
Number of FTE contact tracers, based on State’s recommendation of at least 15 FTE contact tracers per every 100,000 residents |
45 FTE |
75-115 FTE |
FISCAL IMPACT:
The term of the amended agreement with Heluna is December 4, 2020 through December 31, 2021.The amount of the amended agreement is not to exceed $6,000,000 for the length of the term. The amendment increases the amount payable under the agreement by $2,500,000. For the period of December 4, 2020 through February 28, 2021, allowable costs up to $526,519 have been funded through CARES Act funding. Funding for the period of March 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021 will be provided by the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity Expansion funding provided by the California Department of Public Health and a second ATR will be brought to this Board.
Funds in the amount of $2,500,000 will be included in the PHPP FY 2020-21 Adopted Budget. Funds in the amount of $3,500,000 will be included in the PHPP FY 2021-22 Recommended Budget.
There is no Net County Cost associated with the approval of this contract.