Subject:
Title
OMNI Healthcare’s Revised Proposal for COVID-19 Vaccine Administration in Brevard County
End
Fiscal Impact:
Per OMNI Healthcare’s Revised Proposal - There would be no cost to the County, OMNI Healthcare would seek payment from recipient’s insurance companies and federal government agencies
Dept/Office:
Public Safety / Emergency Management
Requested Action:
Recommendation
It is requested that the Board of County Commissioners:
- Review the attached proposal from OMNI Healthcare related to vaccine administration within Brevard County; relative to the proposal:
o Direct staff to negotiate with OMNI Healthcare a contract that is consistent with contracts executed already with local hospital systems and Caliburn; or
o Accept the revised proposal as submitted by OMNI Healthcare and direct staff to draft a contract based on the proposal; or
o Reject the OMNI Healthcare proposal as submitted.
- If Board direction is to draft a contract with OMNI Healthcare, then an additional requested action is to:
o Authorize the Chair to execute any resulting contract and contract related documents upon review and approval by the County Attorney’s Office, Risk Management, and Purchasing Services.
End
Summary Explanation and Background:
Staff received, on Wednesday March 10, 2021, the attached revised proposal (original proposal initially received Friday March 5, 2021) from OMNI Healthcare to participate in administering the COVID-19 vaccine in Brevard County. OMNI Healthcare has submitted a proposal that could establish up to three (3) additional vaccine sites (one in Melbourne, one in Palm Bay and a location in Merritt Island). The three additional sites could vaccinate 1,000 recipients per day; 18,000 per week.
Upon Board direction, the County Attorney’s Office will begin drafting an agreement that would outline the distribution of the vaccines by OMNI Healthcare. Currently the County does not receive any vaccine distribution from the Federal or State government. As such, any Florida Department of Health (FDOH) controlled vaccine distribution within Brevard County currently must be approved by the FDOH.
The current FDOH vaccine distribution program provides that any vaccines received above FDOH’s capacity would be equitably distributed to the local hospitals based on the capacity their sites could distribute. To date, FDOH/Emergency Management have not implemented any of the hospital no fee, no reimbursement agreements, because current FDOH vaccine allotments have not exceeded their site capacity. Should FDOH begin to receive over 8,000 vaccines per week, FDOH could implement the hospital no fee/no reimbursement distribution plan. The three hospital systems can vaccinate a minimum of 12,500 recipients per week. This would bring the weekly vaccine distribution to 20,500.
FDOH/Emergency Management are working with municipalities to enter into agreements wherein participating municipalities would receive vaccines and distribute them locally, under terms and conditions similar to the terms outlined in the County’s agreements with the local hospital systems. These agreements, once in place would increase vaccine distribution capacity an additional 2,500 per week, or a total weekly distribution of approximately 23,000 vaccines at no cost to the County, the recipients, or insurance companies. Currently FDOH’s plan for vaccine distribution, once their capacity is exceeded is to equitably distribute among the hospital systems, then distribute among participating municipalities.
As a last resort (as previously presented to and approved by the Board) the County could implement the Caliburn contract at a site in Merritt Island, implementation of this contract would be a pay for service, at the previously Board approved rate of $22.00 per shot (January 26, 2021 Board Agenda Item I.2). It should be noted that Caliburn has agreed (as outlined in their contract, that they will not bill recipients or insurance companies). Should FDOH begin to regularly receive vaccine allotments that exceed 23,000 vaccines weekly, the Caliburn Contract could be implemented. The Caliburn contract would increase vaccine distribution by approximately 5,000 vaccines per week, bringing the total weekly distribution to 28,000 vaccines.
The revised OMNI Healthcare proposal was received after several communications between County staff, OMNI Healthcare staff and their representatives.
OMNI Healthcare’s proposal states the following:
- OMNI Healthcare will not charge the County for any vaccines administered.
- OMNI Healthcare would seek funding to support vaccine administration from a variety of non-County sources, that may include insurance companies, CARES Act Funds, anticipated American Rescue Plan funding, and FEMA Public Assistance reimbursement.
(Note: The existing agreements with local hospital systems provide that they would provide all aspects of the vaccine administration (from scheduling to giving the shot) at no charge to the County, the recipient, or any insurance company.)
o OMNI Healthcare may seek administrative assistance in submitting applications from these federal sources.
(Note: The proposal did not specify whom OMNI Healthcare would seek administrative assistance from, County staff or outside consultant)
o OMNI Healthcare would not charge patients without insurance, or patients with insurance co-pays or deductibles for the vaccine
- OMNI Healthcare stated they are able to mobilize the Merritt Island vaccine site within 3 days of being notified vaccines are available; the Melbourne and Palm Bay sites would be available immediately upon notification.
- OMNI Healthcare has the capacity to administer 18,000 vaccine distributions per week.
Implementation of an agreement with OMNI Healthcare would be similar to comparable provisions in the current agreements with local hospitals and Caliburn, in that it would not be implemented until such time that the FDOH is receiving more vaccine that it can distribute within its weekly operations at the Viera vaccine site and the FDOH provides the additional vaccines to Brevard County for distribution.
It is recommended that prior to implementing either contract with OMNI Healthcare or Caliburn, vaccine distribution should be made equitably to local hospitals first (based on their capacity limitations), followed by participating municipalities as they have all agreed to provide all aspects of the vaccine administration (from scheduling to giving the shot) at no charge to the County, the recipient, or the any insurance company.
Clerk to the Board Instructions:
None