Special Notice / Hearing: None__
Vote Required: 4/5
To: Honorable Board of Supervisors
From: Louise F. Rogers, Chief, San Mateo County Health
Marc Meulman, 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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Recommendation to:
A) 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, increasing the amount payable by $6,500,000 to an amount not to exceed $12,500,000, and extending the term from December 31, 2021 to June 30, 2022; and
B) Approve an Appropriation Transfer Request (ATR) in the amount of $6,500,000 in Epidemiology, Laboratory Capacity Expansion funds to cover this amendment.
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BACKGROUND:
On May 26, 2020, San Mateo 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 the 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 contact tracers to the CD program.
On December 31, 2020, the County directly entered into a contract with Heluna to provide contact tracers to the CD program to immediately cover weekends and holidays. This agreement was amended to increase the number of contact tracers, contact tracer leads, contact tracing administrative support and to increase the not to exceed amount from $500,000 to $3,500,000.
On March 1, 2021, the parties amended the agreement to add certain provisions to increase the contact tracers, contact tracer leads, contact tracing administrative support, replace Exhibit A1 with Exhibit A2 and replace Exhibit B1 with Exhibit B2.
On March 18, 2021, the parties amended the agreement to extend the term of the agreement through December 31, 2021 and increase the not to exceed amount from $3,500,000 to $6,000,000.
DISCUSSION:
In response to the continued presence of COVID-19 cases in the community, the need for contact tracing is on-going. PHPP would therefore like to request an extension of the agreement term with Heluna from December 31, 2021 to June 30, 2022. 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 amendment represents the potential maximum number of contact tracers employed and the corresponding potential costs to be incurred; actual use of contact tracers may be less depending on COVID-19 trends and program planning.
The amendment 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 a maximum of 90 Heluna FTE contact tracers, contact tracer leads, and contact tracing administrative support hired to meet the County’s needs based on current and projected case rates.
PERFORMANCE MEASURE:
|
Measure |
FY 2020-21 Estimated |
FY 2021-22 Projected |
|
Number of Heluna FTE contact tracers, contact tracer leads, and contact tracing administrative support hired to meet the County’s needs based on current and projected case rates |
45 FTE |
90 FTE* |
*This number represents the maximum potential number of contact tracers; actual use of contract tracers may be less depending on COVID-19 trends and program planning. The number of Heluna Health contracted contact tracers is increasing to take the place of departmental contact tracers; the overall number of contact tracers remains stable with intent to scale contact tracing with COVID-19 trends.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The term of the amended agreement with Heluna is December 31, 2020 through June 30, 2022. The amount of the amended agreement is not to exceed $12,500,000 for the 18-month-term. Funding for this amendment in the amount of $6,500,000 will be funded by the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity Expansion funding and will be added to the FY 2021-22 Adopted Budget via the attached Appropriation Transfer Request resulting in a total of $9,500,000 budgeted for this contract in the PHPP FY 2021-22 Adopted Budget. The PHPP FY 22-23 budget will be amended accordingly to reconcile the total ELC grant funds across the three-year term of the grant.
There is no Net County Cost associated with the approval of this amendment.