The Houston Health Department (HHD) requests City council approval of a purchase order in the amount of $122,157.60 to Harris County Hospital District, D/B/A Harris Health System (Harris Health) for the payment of outstanding invoices. The purchase order will be for a period from the date of issuance of the purchase order until all allocated funds have been exhausted or when terminated by the City Attorney, whichever comes first.
In 2009, HHD was a party to an interlocal agreement between Harris Health, Harris County and Harris Center for Mental Health and IDD known as the QUAD Eligibility Project Agreement. This agreement allowed seamless eligibility screenings and enrollment into services across each entity utilizing software managed by Network Science Inc (NSI). Under the initial agreement, Harris Health invoiced each party for its software use based on the number of users accessing the system on a monthly basis. This contract lapsed in April 2014. Harris Health did not initiate a new agreement between the parties at that time. HHD continued using the software at the director’s directive because it enabled HHD to continue providing access to health care, a critical public health service to the community.
In 2016, Harris Health submitted two invoices dated March 8, 2016; one for the period of 8/22/13 - 8/21/14 and the other for 8/22/14 - 8/22/15 which caused the total payment due to Harris Health to be over $50,000 in that fiscal year. HHD later received additional invoices from Harris Health for more current time periods, requiring the need to issue a payment in an amount not to exceed $122,157.60.
The NSI software fee is now being paid directly to NSI via direct pay as a subscription service and the annual spend is not anticipated to exceed $50,000.
Fiscal Note:
Funding for this item is included in the FY19 Adopted Budget. Therefore, no Fiscal Note is required as stated in the Financial Policies.
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Stephen L. Williams, M.Ed., M.P.A.
Director, Houston Health Department