Senior Action Network Appeals San Mateo County Contract Decision; County Announces 2006 Budget
The Senior Action Network has appealed San Mateo County's decision to award a contract for a toll-free telephone service to provide Medicare information to Self Help For the Elderly, the San Francisco Examiner reports.
According to the Examiner, SAN was identified in the proposal process as the top potential provider for the service.
However, Lisa Mancini, director of Aging and Adult Services for the San Mateo County Health Department, has final discretion on which group is awarded the contract, which is worth about $200,000 annually. Mancini can award the contract to a lower-ranked bidder as long as the contractor is qualified, the Examiner reports.
Medicare requires the county to issue a request for proposals every four years, and Self Help For the Elderly has held the contract for most of the past 10 years.
Bruce Livingston, executive director of SAN, said, "We're offended there is a public RFP (request for proposal) process that seems to be completely ignored at the discretion of one person."
Mancini said she could not discuss the details of her decision because of the appeal (Wein, San Francisco Examiner, 6/15).
In other San Mateo County news, the county's proposed 2006 budget would include $446 million for health care expenditures, including $55 million for the San Mateo Medical Center and its affiliated clinics, the Examiner reports. Health care expenditures account for about one-third of the proposed $1.45 billion county budget (Friedland, San Francisco Examiner, 6/15).
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