Butler County receives five proposals for $6M testing, vaccine program: What comes next?

The commissioners put out a request for proposals last month for the free testing and vaccine distribution program, and County Administrator Judi Boyko said five responses have been returned. She will next determines which meet the parameters of the proposal request.

The five companies are:

The proposal request said providers must present a unit price for the tests and vaccines and they are not allowed to charge residents for office visits when they receive medical procedures. According to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine website, costs range from $36 to $180 per test, but “any test would also likely require additional charges for specimen collection and a physician’s visit.” The federal government has subsidized the cost for tests.

Providers have been asked to demonstrate how they can handle both testing sites countywide and “strike team operations” that can be deployed to help populations that have the most need, based on updated data from the Butler County General Health District.

“We are really pleased to see this program moving along, and look forward to seeing additional testing options offered across the community,” said county Health Commissioner Jennifer Bailer. “The partnership’s objective is to make testing convenient for those that need it, stop the spread and help public health further understand this disease.”

The commissioners are using part of the $18.7 million federal coronavirus relief funds it received to pay for the testing. Boyko said an evaluation team including her, Bailer and some of her staff, Finance Director Angel Burton, who previously worked at the Cincinnati Health Department, and several others will begin vetting work soon.

She expects they will be able to make a recommendation to the commissioners in early January. There have been 22,488 positive COVID-19 cases, 739 hospitalizations and 179 deaths in Ohio since the pandemic began, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

“I want to expedite of course and I want to have this decision made quickly for the board of commissioners, but there are so many intricate, logistical and clinical issues that need to be affirmed and we need to apply the due diligence for this review,” Boyko said. “Everyone wants to make a decision as quickly as possible. I’m not willing to be reckless in that decision for the benefit of expediency.”

To get the program launched quickly, the county asked if any providers would be willing to accept smaller contracts below the $50,000 bidding threshold to begin testing, but none have taken that offer.

A work group of countywide stakeholders has been meeting regularly to tackle the many challenges the coronavirus pandemic has posed. Commissioner Cindy Carpenter is a member of the group and she said this initiative is critical.

“We’ve done an extraordinary thing putting the $6 million into testing but also rolling out the vaccine,” she said. “That’s what sets us ahead of any other county in Ohio, because we will support getting this vaccine out a fast as possible. So if someone says it’s time to do nursing homes, give us week and we’ll have that done.”

All three county commissioners have recovered from the virus. Commissioner Don Dixon was the last, returning Monday in time for the review of the 2021 budget. There is an additional $5.77 million in unallocated CARES relief funding. Dixon told the Journal-News he’d like to possibly see that money used for vaccinations.

“The first task at hand has got to be get our people in Butler County healthy and try to get everything back on track economically,” Dixon said. “Because it won’t make any difference if we can’t ever get a handle on that, we’ll never be able to solve the other problems.”

CONTINUING COVERAGE

The Journal-News has covered every step of CARES Act funding allocation throughout Butler County, including this vaccine and testing program. We are committed to using reporters in our communities to follow government spending at all levels.