Officials at the Arkansas Department of Human Services have ceased their Arkansas Medicaid Dental Managed Care vendor procurement process and are currently “reviewing options to either rebid the procurement or to move beneficiaries back to Fee for Service,” DHS spokesman Gavin Lesnick tells the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Lesnick cites an impasse in the negotiation process, saying that “during active negotiations with vendors who bid on the Dental Managed Care contract, it became apparent we [would] not reach agreement.”
Current contract holders Delta Dental and MCNA ranked highest in DHS’ proposal scoring, at 774.01 and 766.90, followed by DentaQuest at 759.97 and Liberty Dental at 759.20.
In December 2023, after learning DHS anticipated awarding contracts to all four vendors—not the “two or three” cited in the DHS’ request for proposal—Delta Dental attorney Mark Hodge wrote a letter of protest to DHS Secretary Kristi Putnam, contending Delta is “an aggrieved party due to the impacts of a four-vendor award decision which fails to adhere to the procurement rules set forth in the RFP and the results of the evaluation conducted by the DHS.”
The Office of State Procurement dismissed the protest, citing that the “two or three” language in the RFP was “aspirational” and “more akin to a statement of intent or recitals in a contract rather than a statement prescribing required conduct or action for either the offerors or the DHS”
More from Michael R. Wickline at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
