REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP) VIRTUAL PROVIDERS FOR THE CDC-CERTIFIED NATIONAL DIABETES PREVENTION PROGRAM (NDPP) Issue Date: September 8, 2015 Response Due Date: October 2, 2015 Reply to: Amy Dixon adixon@fphny.org Released By: Fund for Public Health in New York 22 Cortland Street, 11 th Floor, Suite 1103, New York, NY 10007 Phone: 646.710.4860 Fax: 212.693.1856 www.fphny.org 1 P age
Proposal Contents Summary... 3 Background... 4 Description of Award... 5 Eligibility and Requirements... 5 Selection Criteria... 8 Support and Funding Process... 9 Proposal Requirements... 9 Application Timeline... 10 Appendix A... 11 2 P age
Summary The Fund for Public Health in New York (FPHNY), on behalf of the New York City Office of Labor Relations (OLR) is seeking proposals for National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP) web-based providers. FPHNY serves as a fiscal agent for OLR. The National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP) provides employees at risk for diabetes access to life changing classes that help with stress and weight management, problem solving and motivation. Over the course of a year, a lifestyle coach leads participants with pre diabetes through discussions about how to establish healthy routines, lose weight and exercise more. Evaluation of this model suggests that when people with pre diabetes take part, they cut their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by more than half. The virtual complement to this program will allow greater access and flexibility to this program for employees who may not be in structured work settings or have the time to participate in scheduled in-person classes. The purpose of this RFP is to identify providers to administer a virtual version of the CDCcertified National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP) to employees of New York City. New York City (NYC) employs approximately 350,000 workers and provides health insurance for 1.3 million people (workers, retirees and their dependents). This represents approximately 15% of NYC s population. It is estimated that 30% of the population have pre-diabetes and often do not know it. In the NYC workforce that would translate to more than 100,000 people. NYC will be piloting the NDPP at a number of worksites and offer an online NDPP program for those employees working in the field, geographically dispersed and for those concerned about confidentiality at the worksite. Offering multiple worksite locations and the choice of worksite or online modalities will help build demand for the program and increase participation in NDPP among City workers, which in turn may improve participants diets, rates of physical activity, and reinforce healthy behaviors. For the online program, we seek to engage an established vendor that has completed the Diabetes Prevention Recognition Program to reach a minimum of 300 participants during the course of this 2-year grant. We will utilize a risk-shared agreement with payments to be awarded at key milestones in the process, detailed further in this proposal. Interested parties should read through this Request for Proposal thoroughly and complete all necessary portions by Friday, October 2, 2015. 3 P age
Background The city has a high burden of chronic conditions. Data from the city s 2013 Community Health Survey (CHS) indicate that more than 56.2% of adults are either overweight or obese. Obesity is a leading cause of diabetes, heart disease, stroke and other serious conditions, and more than 5,000 New Yorkers die of obesity-related health problems each year. Diabetes is the fourth leading cause of death in NYC and its prevalence in NYC has more than doubled since 1995. The city s prevalence of diabetes is 9.7% and it is estimated that 30% of the population have prediabetes and often do not know it. With modest weight loss through lifestyle changes, many individuals can delay or even eliminate their chance of developing diabetes altogether. The National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP) is a lifestyle training curriculum based on a national study that showed that modest weight loss reduces the risk of developing diabetes by 60%. The NDPP was established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a partnership between community organizations, health plans, employers, health care organizations, and government agencies to make evidence based lifestyle classes available to as many people with pre diabetes or gestational diabetes who are overweight or obese as possible. This effort originated in a large study over fifteen years ago which demonstrated that an intensive lifestyle modification program that emphasized a minimum of 7% weight loss and 150 minutes of weekly physical activity could reduce the 3 year risk of developing type 2 diabetes for at risk participants by 58%, as compared with no treatment. Among those assigned to the lifestyle modification program, by the end of the curriculum, 50% of the participants reached the goal of weight loss of seven percent or greater. Since that time, multiple studies have found that the same curriculum can help people with pre diabetes working in groups in community settings to achieve the same crucial weight loss. Despite strong evidence for lifestyle change programs like the NDPP, fewer than 2,500 people in NYC with pre-diabetes (less than 1% of estimated persons with pre-diabetes in NYC) have participated in an NDPP class. NYC expects to scale the NDPP to reach thousands of city employees through worksite and online delivery of this effective curriculum. The NDPP is structured around weekly meeting sessions where critical educational information is shared and critical team support from co-workers is obtained. Over the course of one year, groups of 15-20 participants participate in hour long classes facilitated by a lifestyle coach. These classes are held once a week for the first 16 weeks, then monthly for 6 months thereafter. The vendor for this RFP must follow a similar model using an online application, adapting the CDC national curriculum for on-line use and developing virtual Lifestyle Coaches to help support participants through this process. Also, the selected vendor will also be responsible for creating a social component to provide participants with the peer support that would have been obtained during in-class sessions. 4 P age
Description of Award Through this RFP, an established CDC-certified vendor will be selected to deliver a NDPP online program. Approximately $150,000 in funding is available to create and administer a mobile-compatible interface that will allow participants to engage in the NDPP program from any location and foster a community of participants that will serve as peer support throughout the duration of the program. This online program should be for a time period of two years and must be able to accommodate a minimum of 300 participants with the expansion capacity of 600 users. Eligibility and Requirements To apply for this RFP, all vendors must be CDC recognized or have applied for recognition at the time of application. The cost to deliver this program must not exceed award amount. Eligible vendors must: 1. Have completed the CDC - Diabetes Prevention Recognition Program (DPRP) application process and be able to provide the DPRP code or screenshot showing pending certification. 2. Meet New York City procurement rules and become a municipal vendor located in Appendix A. 3. Have a demonstrable record of delivering the NDPP program to diverse populations for a minimum of 2 years. 4. Have experience working with employers to promote and enroll participants in the program. 5. Be willing to negotiate a risk-based contract or outcome based. 6. Have diverse coaches of various gender, ethnic, racial, geographic backgrounds. 7. Have the ability to scale up to accommodate thousands of participants once the pilot is concluded. 8. Executive leadership s support of the RFP, demonstrated by a signed letter from the CEO or President of your organization. 9. Be willing to share aggregated participant data collected with FPHNY and other third-party vendors. Proposal Structure I. Organizational Overview: a. What services does your organization provide, including background and scope? b. How will your organization meet the needs of outlined in this proposal? c. How many years has your organization delivered this program? II. Program Interface: a. How will users interface with the virtual program? Provide screenshots where necessary. b. What user studies have been conducted to ensure ease of use and access for users? 5 P age
c. Is the interface web-based? App supported? And if so, which platform? d. Describe the technical support available for users. e. Describe your ability to make changes to your program based on user feedback. III. Interface Success: a. Describe prior participant use, including user demographics, length of use and outcomes achieved as a result. b. Do you conduct participant satisfaction surveys? If so, please share data to support participant satisfaction. IV. Health Coaches: a. Please explain the requirements to become a health coach in your organization? b. How many health coaches does your organization employ? c. What hours/time frames are coaches available to participants? d. How long is the average coaching session? e. What options are available for employees who have work schedules outside of the traditional Monday-Friday, 9:00am 5:00pm work day? f. What experience does your coaches have in dealing with diverse populations? g. Please describe how health coaches interact with program participants and modes of communication. Share all relevant information. V. Ability to Scale: a. What previous experience does your organization have in scaling an online program? b. What resources are currently available to meet increased demand? What would need to be acquired? VI. Data Collection: a. Describe how you will collect participant data for the purpose of tracking and reporting during the award period for the following measures: i. Weekly count of participants in cohorts ii. Number who complete the program iii. Biometric outcomes weight, A1C, blood pressure, etc. 6 P age
iv. Employee Satisfaction rates of staff at beginning and end of program v. Absenteeism rates before, during and after program vi. Impact on workflow for participants (productivity rates) vii. Frequency of use/interaction with interface b. Describe your capacity to remit the data that can be used for data analysis, including: i. Format ii. Frequency c. Benchmarking capability. Describe your capacity to compare/contrast aggregated participant data locally and/or nationally to that of: i. Other users of your software ii. Other online DPP services VII. Budget: a. Please submit a line item budget b. Please submit a budget narrative that shows justifications for each line. c. Sample outcomes-based payment structure. VIII. Innovation a. Please share any innovations or unique features of your interface that enhances the effectiveness of your program. 7 P age
Selection Criteria A Selection Committee will be used to review and score all completed RFPs using the criteria listed below. The total of these scores will inform the selection for funding from the Fund for Public Health of New York. Budget CRITERIA DESCRIPTION A line item budget and a budget narrative should accompany the proposal. POINT VALUE 25 Data Collection Plan Success of this initiative will be measured through data collection on participant outcomes, participation rates and number of employees reached. A Data Collection Plan must accompany this proposal and outline how this process will occur. Vendors must agree to share all data collected with FPHNY and other third-parties as identified. 25 Ability to Scale Coach Access Diversity of Coaches Ease of Use/Interface Each proposal will successfully demonstrate how the online version will be brought to scale from 300 initial users. This can include prior experience in delivering the application to an expanded user population. The use of this online application is primarily intended for employees that work varying schedules and/or are fieldbased employees. Coach access, outside traditional business hours of 9am EST 5pm EST will be important in meeting the needs of enrolled staff. Successful proposals will address how those needs will be met. NYC employees come from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Coaches that are diverse and have the capacity to work with a diverse population is highly favorable. Demonstrating ease of use and availability of technical support to users should be outlined in the proposal. 20 10 10 5 Innovation Innovation points will be allocated at the Committee s discretion. This section should outline any awards, discerning prior outcomes and unique features of the online interface you would like the Committee to consider upon review. 5 POINT VALUE TOTAL 100 8 P age
Support and Funding Process Once a selection has been made, the designated vendor will be asked to contract with the Fund for Public Health of New York. Release of funds and other needs will be incorporated into the contracting process. Proposal Requirements All proposals must be submitted complete. In order for a submission to be complete, the following must be submitted with the proposal as separate attachments: A CDC vendor certification code or a screenshot from the CDC showing pending certification A letter from the CEO or President of your organization expressing support for the proposal and organizational capacity to meet proposal obligations and future programmatic capacity needs A lead contact and contact information A budget and budget narrative A Data Collection Plan A Data Reporting and Sharing Plan Proposals must be submitted electronically. Please format all documents submitted in response to this RFP in.pdf format (Portable Document Format). Proposals must be emailed to the following address, no later than October 2, 2015 11:59 EST. Attn: Amy Dixon Subject: NDPP Online Provider RFP Submission E-mail: adixon@fphny.org Reponses received after the October 2, 2015 deadline will not be reviewed. RFP questions can also be sent to the contact listed above during the inquiry period of September 14, 2015 to September 18, 2015 4:00pm EST. Please note in the subject line: Inquiry: NDPP Online Provider RFP Submission. No other contact with FPHNY or OLR personnel regarding this RFP is permitted between the release of this RFP and the notice of the award. Any oral communication shall be considered unofficial and non-binding with regard to this RFP and subsequent award. 9 P age
Application Timeline Below is a detailed timeline of events related to this proposal. The deadline for submission via email is October 2, 2015 11:59 EST. Proposals must be submitted via email. Each successful application will be scored using the following criteria: Timeline Date RFP Posted September 8, 2015 September 14, 2015 to September 18, 2015 Inquiry Period for Questions 4:00pm EST directed to adixon@fphny.org September 25, 2015 1:00pm EST Question and Answer Teleconference Proposal Submission Deadline Call #: 1-800-868-3688 Participant: 38867501# October 2, 2015 11:59 EST Notice of Selection October 16, 2015 10 P age
Appendix A General Provisions Governing Contracts for Consultants, Professional, Technical, Human and Client Services City Procurement Rules Questions and Answers about Local Law 34 and the Doing Business Database Doing Business Data Form Iran Divestment Act Compliance Rider for New York City Contractors Notice to Bidders 11 P age