BILL ANALYSIS
By: Anchia
Committee Report (Unamended)
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Under current law, a county must give preference to the lowest bidder, even if that lowest bidder or a subcontractor it intends to use, does not provide comparable health insurance.
H.B. 2695 authorizes a commissioners court to giver preference to a bidder who provides and requires comparable health insurance coverage, if the bid is within fiver percent of the lowest bid price.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.
ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Subchapter C, Chapter 262, Local Government Code, by adding Section 262.0271, which defines comparable health insurance coverage as health insurance benefits provided by a bidder or a subcontractor a bidder intends to use that are comparable to the health insurance benefits provided for employees of the county.
In purchasing health benefits through a competitive bidding process, if a county receives one or more bids from a bidder who provides comparable health insurance coverage to its employees and requires a subcontractor to provide comparable health insurance coverage to the subcontractor's employees and whose bid is within five percent of the lowest bid price received from a bidder who does not provide or require comparable health insurance coverage, the commissioners court of the county is authorized to give preference to the bidder who provides and requires comparable health insurance coverage.
A county is not prohibited from rejecting all bids.
SECTION 2. The change made in law by this Act applies only to a contract awarded on or after the effective date of this Act.
SECTION 3. Effective Date
EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2005