In a request for information released Feb. 21, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) is exploring hiring a “third-party administrator” (TPA) to assist it in enhancing grant management strategies. DHCS, per its website, is the “backbone” of the state’s health-care safety net and is charged with providing residents with access to “affordable, integrated, high-quality health care, including medical, dental, mental health, substance use treatment services and long-term care.” Among the takeaways:
- DHCS may look to contract with a “business services vendor” to serve as a TPA for its “grant strategy to scale up evidence-based and community-defined evidence practices (EBPs/CDEPs),” according to the RFI. As part of the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (CYBHI), DHCS may utilize a TPA for its grant strategy, to “scale up evidence-based and community-defined evidence practices (EBPs/CDEPs).” The department invites vendors to respond who may be able to help it implement its “CYBHI EBP/CDEP grant strategy” and offer feedback on the services described in the preliminary draft’s scope of work — available to vendors as an attachment to the RFI. Those responses, DHCS said, may be used to refine the scope of work.
- Ultimately, DHCS said, it expects to award a contract for a TPA to “administer grants to qualified applicants to scale up EBPs/CDEPs” statewide. The RFI is aimed at helping the department find and get feedback from vendors with “expertise using evidence-based approaches to implementing,” and working with organizations to “implement EBPs/CDEPs in behavioral health or other health care settings.” The RFI will also enable DHCS to get feedback from vendors capable of developing “grant materials including solicitations, criteria, and scoring tools/rubrics”; and reviewing and scoring applications via a DHCS rubric; serving as a fiscal intermediary and distributing grant funds; offering training and technical assistance to grantees; monitoring their performance; collecting data; and reporting outcomes and performance trends on “statewide performance dashboards.”
- As part of CYBHI, created in the 2021-2022 Fiscal Year state budget, DHCS will, with input from stakeholders, choose a “limited number of EBPs and CDEPs to scale throughout the state based on robust evidence for effectiveness, impact on equity, and sustainability.” By doing so, it hopes to improve access to critical behavioral health interventions including those “centered on prevention, early intervention, and resiliency/recovery for children and youth, specifically focused on children and youth from the black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual (LGBTQIA+) communities.” The FY 2021-22 budget included $429 million to “implement an EBP/CDEP grant strategy” starting in FY 2022-23. Grant recipients include tribal entities, “local education agencies, institutions of higher education, childcare and preschools, health plans, community-based organizations, behavioral health providers, and county behavioral health departments.”
- The RFI, DHCS said, should offer respondents the opportunity to provide input in areas including what technologies could be used in grant administration — and any partnerships with tech companies that could be relevant; experience in relevant service delivery and in behavioral health, including “implementing and/or scaling EBPs/CDEPs”; whether the respondent has administered a federal, state or local grant program; whether the company has developed requests for applications; and whether the respondent has experience creating a standardized set of metrics to determine success across multiple organizations or grantees.
- Questions on the RFI are due by 4 p.m. Wednesday; responses will come March 8. Responses to the RFI are due by 4 p.m. March 22.
