Bid Process for Cover Tennessee

Cover Tennessee is slated to be available in January, but before then, a challenging bid process awaits the governor and his staff.

The health insurance plan for employees of small businesses concerned many lawmakers this session for its lack of detail on what will be covered. That’s because Governor Phil Bredesen wants insurance companies to formulate the details.

He’s going to start with the formation of a committee that will establish criteria for measuring the bids against one another, beyond just using the value of the lowest priced proposal.

“The bidding process the state goes through is ideal for building a building, you specify the building and the low bid gets it. When you get into complex things like this the evaluation of the bids is complicated and will take the most time.”

The administration already knows it wants a plan costing about 150-dollars per person so the administration is looking for the best value—the number prescriptions, hospital days and doctor visits. Bredesen has said the premium will be higher for smokers and those who are obese.

The Governor has yet to set a timeline for the bidding process.