Opinion ID: 1966598
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Fully-Insured Medicare HMO Rates

Text: Third, the trial justice determined that United's bid was nonresponsive because the RFP asked the parties to quote rates with respect to fully-insured Medicare HMO rates for the three years the contract would cover, for illustrative purposes only since the federal government regulates those rates. United provided a quote only for 2005. Without informing Blue Cross of its decision, the State decided to score only that first year instead of the three years as set forth in the RFP. In H.V. Collins Co., 696 A.2d at 305, we refused to hold against Gilbane its failure to submit a cash-flow chart as requested in the RFP because, as Gilbane argued, the process was in too embryonic a posture    `[a] cash flow analysis is of little significance in a project not yet designed, budgeted or funded.' The same rationale applies to this issue. This particular factor in the RFP is inconsequential; all parties understood that the number being requested was illustrative only and that the actual figure would depend on future decisions made by the federal government. In a situation in which the RFP is so complex and only two bidders have submitted proposals, the Judiciary will not question an awarding authority's decision to overlook shortcomings of this nature. Based on our holding in H.V. Collins Co., there is no palpable abuse of discretion on the State's part for declining to assess figures that have no real-life bearing on the contract. This inconsequential decision, combined with the absence of any evidence that the [State] acted in a corrupt manner or in bad faith, id. at 305, leads us to conclude that the trial justice improperly substituted her own judgment in vacating the State's presumptively correct decision. Therefore, we hold the State's acceptance of United's decision to submit purely illustrative quotes for fully-insured Medicare HMO rates only for 2005 hardly rises to the level of palpable abuse of discretion on the part of the awarding authority.