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Board renews employee health-center contract with performance guarantee and termination clause
Summary
The Commissioners approved a three-year contract with ProactiveMD to provide the county employee health center, adding quarterly performance metrics, a $30,000 quarterly penalty if metrics are missed twice in succession, and an option to terminate without penalty if performance does not improve.
The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners on May 19 awarded a three-year contract to ProactiveMD to operate the county employee health center, with staffing and a new performance-guarantee provision.
Finance staff brought back a revised recommendation after earlier meetings. The accepted contract includes two full-time nurse practitioners, two full-time licensed practical nurses and one full-time office manager. ProactiveMD agreed to quarterly performance metrics: schedule 80% of sick/acute visits within one business day and 80% of non-acute visits within 10 business days. If both metrics are unmet for two consecutive quarters, the vendor would forfeit $30,000 of program fees for that quarter and the county would have the option to terminate the contract without financial penalty.
Finance director Robin Coops and county staff said ProactiveMD would need roughly 90 days to fill open clinical positions and that the metrics would begin once staffing stabilizes. Commissioners asked how performance data and patient feedback would be gathered; county manager said staff would work with ProactiveMD to obtain a confidential follow-up email mechanism so employees could submit feedback that would not go to clinic medical staff.
The motion to award the three-year contract with the performance additions carried in the recorded roll-call. Commissioners who raised concerns sought assurances the quarterly metrics would be tracked and that confidential employee feedback would be protected.
Why it matters
The employee health center is a county-provided benefit used by staff; adding enforceable performance metrics and a clear penalty/termination pathway responds to prior concerns about appointment access and service quality. The contract increases staffing and places program fees at risk to encourage timeliness of care.
