AGENCY
Pierce Transit is a Washington State Municipal Corporation organized under RCW36-57A, with approximately 1000 employees and has a responsibility for providing fixed route and elderly and disabled public transportation services and supporting functions in urban Pierce County, from Tacoma to Olympia and Seattle. Eighty-five percent (85%) of its workforce is represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 758. The Agency's administrative offices are located at 3701 96th Street SW, PO Box 99070, Lakewood, WA 98499-0070.

The Agency became self-insured in 1994. Approximately ninety (90) workers' compensation claims are filed each year. As of August 16, 2011, the Agency has sixty-five (65) open claims, with the claims mix ratio being approximately forty-four percent (44%) indemnity to fifty-six percent (56%) medical only and averages approximately seventy (70) open pending claims per month. Pierce Transit's Claims Administrator oversees the Agency's workers' compensation program and is the appointed liaison with the third party administrator. In 2011 Pierce Transit has experienced layoffs of thirty percent (30%) of the workforce, therefore anticipates a reduction in the number of claims filed in the next three (3) years.

QUALIFICATIONS
The successful Third Party Claims Administrator shall have at a minimum the following qualifications.

• License to do business in the State of Washington.
• Minimum of five (5) years experience in handling worker's compensation self-insured accounts for public entity.
• Have sufficient staff to conduct field investigations, provide prompt reporting and adjudication of medical and indemnity payments.
• Minimum of five (5) public entity clients in the state of Washington.
• Have not received sanctions for non-conforming performance by the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries in the past three (3) years. (Subject to verification with L&I).
• Have sufficient data producing capacity to provide the reporting requirements outlined in this RFP.
• Have a compliance rating from L&I in excess of eighty percent (80%).

TERM OF CONTRACT
This solicitation for proposals anticipates entering into a contract with the successful Third Party Administrator for a period of three years with three optional one-year periods.