Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Year : 2, Issue: 30
NY Post: The Hochul administration announced Monday a “grace period” for consumers caught in the middle of its turbulent overhaul of the state’s $9 billion home care system – but continued to deflect blame for the chaos.
The Department of Health said participants in the consumer directed personal assistance program, or CDPAP, can be reimbursed once their paperwork is processed by Public Partnerships LLC, the company handpicked by Gov. Kathy Hochul’s team to consolidate payroll services.
But State Health Commissioner Jim McDonald blamed a massive backlog on processing and other issues on misinformation from the hundreds of former intermediaries being replaced by PPL.
“It’s deeply troubling to me that the past information that has been out there has been so misleading to everybody,” McDonald said at a news conference.
The grace period marks a massive turnaround after months of the administration claiming the transition was on track to be completed by April 1, while only occasionally sharing actual numbers of how many people have transitioned.
“I don’t view it as secrecy,” McDonald said, when asked why his department often refuses to provide precise data and other information about the transition.
The commissioner touted sending 18 cease and desist letters to fiscal intermediaries accused of spreading misinformation. There are more than 600 such firms being part of the transition overall.
At Monday’s news conference, PPL CEO Maria Perrin said around 140,000 consumers have completed the transition process. The DOH said last week that around another 55,000 have left CDPAP altogether and moved to the more expensive, personal care services program. That still doesn’t account for another roughly 85,000 consumers.
State Medicaid Director Amir Bassiri said Monday he expected PPL will have completed signing up the 220,000 consumers by April 1. A health department spokesperson later walked back the figure saying Bassiri “misspoke”, but refused to provide an accurate estimate.
Despite the one month “grace period,” critics are still pointing out that thousands of personal assistants will be left without pay for weeks as they hope and pray PPL will process their paperwork, after which they can get paid.
“The Department of Health continues to blame everyone except themselves and PPL for this disaster of a transition,” said Bryan O’Malley, executive director of the Alliance to Protect Home Care, one of the groups representing fiscal intermediaries.
“Now, they are creating more chaos and confusion by asking home care workers to work without pay and without even the most basic protections,” O’Malley continued. “An I.O.U doesn’t pay for rent or groceries and it doesn’t cover late fees and overdraft fees.”
As of Monday evening, PPL’s website makes no mention of anything about the “grace period” and still says consumers and personal assistants must transition by March 28.
DOH Medicaid Chief Operating Officer Amanda Lothrop said PAs who take advantage of the grace period should continue to fill out timesheets as they do now, even though their current fiscal intermediaries will be effectively defunct.
“You still keep track of your time the same way that you have,” Lothrop said.
