Latest news with #ConsumerDirectedPersonalAssistanceProgram
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Taxpayers — and politicians — will have just hours to review Hochul's $254 billion NY state budget before voting begins
ALBANY – State lawmakers will finally begin voting on New York's massive budget package Wednesday, but the public and even politicians themselves aren't sure what the spending bills will say. Thousands of pages of text that make up the budget bill were scheduled to be released starting on Tuesday night, meaning the public and even rank-and-file lawmakers would only have hours to review the package before voting on it. Some sources are even casting doubt on the $254 billion figure that Gov. Kathy Hochul announced last week. Thousands of pages of bill language that make up the budget will be released beginning Tuesday evening, meaning the public and even rank-and-file lawmakers themselves will only have mere hours to study the package before voting on it. Hans Pennink 'The senators have not seen a budget bill, we are told they are on their way, and we're gonna begin voting this week, we haven't seen one,' State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt (R-Niagara) said. 'Let these bills age. Let us dig in. Let us know what we're voting for for the people of New York,' Ortt added. Under the state constitution, the legislature must wait three calendar days before voting on a newly introduced bill, such as the state budget. But that will be bypassed with a 'message of necessity' from Hochul that will allow an early vote on the budget. Multiple sources have already cast doubt on Gov. Kathy Hochul's $254 billion figure she announced last week. Hans Pennink for NY Post 'The governor has taken and abused what should be used only for emergencies and done that to jam budget bills through,' North Country state Sen. Mark Walczyk (R-Jefferson) said. Walczyk sponsored a bill that would prohibit messages of necessity from being used for the state budget. The state budget process is infamously opaque, with the majority of negotiations conducted behind closed doors with the governor and legislative leaders. State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt (R-Niagara) said, 'The senators have not seen a budget bill, we are told they are on their way, and we're gonna begin voting this week, we haven't seen one.' Houston Chronicle via Getty Images Last year, state lawmakers and the governor emerged from backroom talks with a surprise decision to overhaul a Medicaid homecare program, the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program. The proposal they enacted had never been previously revealed or openly discussed. The overhaul they approved has been fraught with accusations of bid rigging, lawsuits and now has led to homecare workers going without pay.
New York Post
06-05-2025
- Business
- New York Post
NYS lawmakers ready to pass budget bills, but even politicians aren't sure what the bills will say: 'Let us dig in'
ALBANY – State lawmakers will finally begin voting on New York's massive budget package Wednesday, but the public and even politicians themselves aren't sure what the spending bills will say. Thousands of pages of text that make up the budget bill were scheduled to be released starting on Tuesday night, meaning the public and even rank-and-file lawmakers would only have hours to review the package before voting on it. Some sources are even casting doubt on the $254 billion figure that Gov. Kathy Hochul announced last week. Advertisement 3 Thousands of pages of bill language that make up the budget will be released beginning Tuesday evening, meaning the public and even rank-and-file lawmakers themselves will only have mere hours to study the package before voting on it. Hans Pennink 'The senators have not seen a budget bill, we are told they are on their way, and we're gonna begin voting this week, we haven't seen one,' State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt (R-Niagara) said. 'Let these bills age. Let us dig in. Let us know what we're voting for for the people of New York,' Ortt added. Advertisement Under the state constitution, the legislature must wait three calendar days before voting on a newly introduced bill, such as the state budget. But that will be bypassed with a 'message of necessity' from Hochul that will allow an early vote on the budget. 3 Multiple sources have already cast doubt on Gov. Kathy Hochul's $254 billion figure she announced last week. Hans Pennink for NY Post 'The governor has taken and abused what should be used only for emergencies and done that to jam budget bills through,' North Country state Sen. Mark Walczyk (R-Jefferson) said. Advertisement Walczyk sponsored a bill that would prohibit messages of necessity from being used for the state budget. The state budget process is infamously opaque, with the majority of negotiations conducted behind closed doors with the governor and legislative leaders. 3 State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt (R-Niagara) said, 'The senators have not seen a budget bill, we are told they are on their way, and we're gonna begin voting this week, we haven't seen one.' Houston Chronicle via Getty Images Advertisement Last year, state lawmakers and the governor emerged from backroom talks with a surprise decision to overhaul a Medicaid homecare program, the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program. The proposal they enacted had never been previously revealed or openly discussed. The overhaul they approved has been fraught with accusations of bid rigging, lawsuits and now has led to homecare workers going without pay.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Medicaid home care program change has left thousands statewide without care or pay for month
May 2—New York's transition to a single company to manage the hundreds of thousands of Medicaid patients and their caregivers in the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program is still hitting major roadblocks, now a month after the new company was supposed to have fully onboarded the assistants and clients. In his north country district, Assemblyman Scott A. Gray, R-Watertown, has been helping local CDPAP clients interface with PPL, the new company, bridging gaps that have left nearly a dozen local residents without pay or the care they've been promised. According to details shared by the Assemblyman and his office, a handful of local residents who were on the CDPAP program before the April 1 transition deadline have now gone at least a month without their caregivers being paid, and continue to struggle to reach PPL for a resolution. Constituent casework documents indicate that many patients are complaining that PPL does not honor call back requests, and have been instructed to instead wait on hold when they call for assistance — a wait that could take hours. Details from casework conversations detail a number of complex situations — one individual, a personal assistant, explained that they had worked for a previous intermediary company up until April 1, and given no information on the transition from that previous company, FreedomCare. When they called on April 1 for more information, the company had already dissolved its CDPAP office. They began applying and eventually did register with PPL, both themselves and their client. That same individual explained that the client's insurance company, which handles their Medicaid benefits including CDPAP, has strict restrictions on hours per week worked for the client, but PPL has not honored those restrictions, leaving the client for days without care. Another case details a PA who thought they were fully transitioned and has in fact been paid by PPL, but has received split payments over multiple checks repeatedly. That worker noted that they've submitted for direct deposit, but PPL continues to issue paper checks through the mail. Yet another case involves one of five personal assistants who care for a north country individual with a traumatic brain injury — the PA said they've registered with PPL but it's unclear if the patient is properly registered as well. They've reached out to PPL, they say, but have failed to reach a real human agent to actually discuss the issue — in the meantime, the five caregivers for this one patient have gone unpaid for weeks. In an interview, Gray said he and his team have been working on this issue for weeks, taking constituent complaints and ferrying information back and forth between the constituents and Gray's contacts at PPL, including their government affairs team. "I don't want to go back and forth with them," he said. "I said 'tell me what you need, we'll get the information, we'll put it on a spreadsheet and we'll send it to you'." Gray said one key issue that PPL informed him of was that there were a number of cases where the company had multiple clients or PA's applying for registration with the same names — the company told him they needed telephone numbers and emails to cross-reference their list of repeated names to fix specific payroll issues. There are other hangups still preventing people from getting paid, but issues are being closed progressively — he said he's handled 17 cases, and 10 have been resolved as of Friday. There are still concerns over unregistered PA's, who don't have accounts with PPL and still need to complete the registration process. From the cases Gray's office has shared, a significant number of issues seem connected to a lack of information provided to the PA's and the clients by DOH or PPL — leaving huge gaps in understanding of what is the clients or PA's responsibility and how to progress through the application and registration process. The original registration deadline was April 1 — but the state DOH had to offer a "grace period," which they took great effort to not classify as a delay in the implementation, of up to May 1 to complete registration. That timeline was thrown out the window by a federal court decision last month that ruled the DOH and PPL had to give clients until mid-May, and PA's until mid-June to complete registration with the new company. In the interim, the previous intermediary companies are meant to still pay the PA's for their hours worked, with state Medicaid dollars mandated to still flow to them for the time-being. When reached for comment, a spokesperson for PPL said that the company's call centers and online resources are freely available and have been ramped up to handle the transition of hundreds of thousands of clients and assistants. "We have more than 2,000 people supporting the customer service center, which is open six days per week, and have another 500 people supporting other operational functions including payroll," the company said in a statement through the spokesperson. "We offer daily appointments at our offices across the state and have 45 facilitator partners who also offer in-person or phone assistance." And on Friday, the company issued a press release noting that just over 165,000 PAs had submitted timesheets for the last pay period, accounting for about 80% of all PAs registered with the company. Almost all who submitted timesheets were paid, and the company has paid at least 172,000 PAs for time worked since April 1, even if those PA's haven't submitted a timesheet for every pay period, and the company has paid $395 million in gross payroll. "While there remain temporary options to be paid by other fiscal intermediaries, each week we are seeing an increasing number of PAs submit timesheets to PPL," said company president Maria Perrin. "We continue to focus on helping PAs get registered and providing education and support on timekeeping and other service needs." Those 172,000 PAs are a long way from the more than 400,000 PAs who cared for about 280,000 CDPAP clients before April 1 — and its far lower than the number of PAs who have tried to register with PPL. Earlier in March, the state Health Department said 245,000 PAs have started or completed registration, and 215,000 had access to the payroll app. Payroll app access doesn't mean a PA is eligible to work, however. Meanwhile, the transition has also kicked tens of thousands of clients out of the CDPAP program — the state DOH has said 60,000 of the original 280,000 clients have moved to other care options, and about 4,000 CDPAP clients had made no determination on their care. Thousands of clients are still working through the transition process, now over a month after their PAs temporarily stopped receiving payments and lost their benefits like health insurance. According to the PPL statement from Friday, the company is working to fulfill state and federal requirements for all PAs — ensuring they have the right to work in the U.S. and are eligible to be a PA in CDPAP. The company said if a PA submits a timesheet without completing all documentation, the company reaches out to help fix the issue.
New York Post
01-05-2025
- Health
- New York Post
Gov. Hochul has only herself to blame for NY's looming Medicaid crisis
As New York's Medicaid costs spiral out of control, Gov. Kathy Hochul would like you to think she has nothing to do with it. In January, she implicitly laid the blame on Washington. 'We will need to take action alongside the federal government to manage [Medicaid] growth,' she said — which, she admitted, 'isn't sustainable for New York taxpayers on its current trajectory.' Advertisement But now that Congress is actually trying to slow Medicaid spending at the federal level, Hochul is blaming Republicans in New York's House delegation for allowing that to happen. 'They have the power to stop these reckless federal cuts,' she charged this week. 'They must find the political will to stand up to this administration and fight for the people they represent.' Hochul's helplessness is just a pose, of course. Advertisement Although the feds pick up half or more of the cost of the safety-net health plan, each state is in charge of managing it — with broad discretion over how many people to cover, what benefits to provide and how generously to compensate providers. That means the whole nation's taxpayers end up footing much of the bill for New York's Medicaid choices. And Hochul happens to be in charge of the most extravagant state Medicaid program of all, spending $3,100 per resident compared to a national average of $1,800. Advertisement As such, she has more power to control Medicaid costs than anyone else. Psst, governor: The Medicaid bucks stop with you. Traditionally, governors of both parties in every state have taken it as their duty to try to keep Medicaid spending in reasonable check, or at least to make a show of it. Hochul has mostly avoided this chore, opting instead to minimize political friction with the health-care industry, Albany's most powerful special interest. Advertisement She has done little to initiate cost-cutting proposals of her own, and has failed to follow through on those she inherited — like a package of reforms, including tighter eligibility restrictions for long-term home health care, passed in early 2020. Those limits were put on hold during the federal pandemic emergency. But that ended in 2023. Almost two years later, Hochul has made no visible sign of implementing them, even though home care remains one of Medicaid's chief cost drivers. Instead, one of her few big initiatives — the consolidation of the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program under a single statewide contractor — will only realize minor savings, but will bring major benefits to 1199 SEIU, the powerful health-care union. Meanwhile, Hochul has sponsored or acceded to policies that directly increase Medicaid costs. Last year the state opened the program to illegal immigrants over age 65 — and more than 19,000 of them signed up in the first three months. Her current budget proposal would boost fees for hospitals, long-term-care facilities and other providers by hundreds of millions of dollars, building on several previous rounds of hikes. Advertisement She's even used Medicaid funds to reward political supporters, including bail-outs for 1199-affiliated benefit funds and grants to a Bronx medical group operated by campaign donors — spending that's far from the mission of caring for the indigent or disabled. Thanks to this blank-check management, the state-supported share of Medicaid costs jumped 36% over Hochul's first three budgets — and it's on track to grow at least 17% in fiscal 2025-26. In just four years, she's surpassed the combined total of increases Andrew Cuomo racked up in his 11-year term. Advertisement On Monday, almost a month into the state's new fiscal year, Hochul announced a 'general agreement' on the budget. The highlights she listed included $3 billion in 'inflation refunds' to taxpayers. But she made no mention of the rising state share of Medicaid, from $38 billion to $44 billion, an increase that accounts for 60% of new state spending in the year ahead. Perhaps she didn't want to emphasize that the best-funded health-care system in the country is getting more additional money than every other state program combined. Although the economy has soured and Congress is readying a slowdown in federal Medicaid funding, Hochul acknowledged the budget deal makes no adjustment for those realities. Advertisement Instead, she warned that she and the Legislature might have to reopen the budget within months — meaning spending cuts, tax increases or both could be around the corner, with Hochul reportedly seeking unilateral authority to cut as much as $2 billion on her own in a revenue 'emergency.' If such drastic measures become necessary — as seems likely — the governor will undoubtedly try to blame Republicans in Washington, two of whom may challenge her re-election in 2026. But voters should make no mistake: Hochul is in the driver's seat on New York's Medicaid spending. Advertisement And she is steering the state straight toward a cliff — and gunning the engine. Bill Hammond is the senior fellow for health policy at the Empire Center.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Governor Hochul weighs in on CDPAP complaints
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — News 8 is continuing to cover the overhaul of the state's Medicaid-funded program which allows people living with disabilities the power to choose their own care providers. The Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) has been around for decades, however during last year's budget session, the Governor announced the massive restructuring, claiming fraud and waste have directly contributed to the ballooning costs, expected to have surpassed $11-billion in 2025. Previously, there were 600+ fiscal intermediaries, companies which handled administrative tasks, such as payroll, but now there is the sole, state-selected FI: Public Partnerships LLC (PPL). News8 has shared and received complaints regarding PPL's website crashing, calls not being returned, the app utilized for clock-in/out (Time4Care) not properly working, and more recently payments not being paid out properly. Georgia McCabe participates in CDPAP as she cares for her son, Brendan, who is legally blind, has cerebral palsy and epilepsy. She explains that she, along with the other care team members for her son, had wanted to wait a little bit in January after the rollout opened up to allow for any issues to be ironed over, however when she went to make the switch, the information was already obtained. 'All of the sudden one day I just got these email and text messages saying that everything had already been uploaded. And I'm like, I didn't do that but basically, they had all the information for the PA's, as well as my son, and that included his Medicaid number, his name, his address, his social security, etc.' McCabe says. She's now grown even more wary of any security protocol and says she's locked down her credit reports, signed up for identity guard, and even had title lock insurance. 'My biggest concern is what kind of compliance do they have from HIPPA; since it's Medicaid and it's health related information you know anyone who has access to that usually goes through some sort of training and there are best practices like, do the employees have background checks done on them, did they have any kind of verification, what kind of roll access do these people have? If they're working remote, I have even stronger concerns about the kind of cybersecurity practices they might have in place, or data protection compliance in terms of the various portals people would be utilizing,' McCabe says. During Governor Kathy Hochul's visit to Rochester on Monday to discuss the budget, which is now three weeks late, News8's Isabel Garcia asked why the administration remains committed to continuing the overhaul at this stage given all the concerns and reported issues: 'We've been talking about this for over a year – this is not an unexpected transition, it was passed in last year's budget so an entire year has passed where we started telling people that this is going to happen and your care will not be disrupted in the long term; a few hiccups early on, but taking care of — but basically starting in January people could transition, they had until April — now it's May 15 – but I will also tell you this, and I hope your reporting will investigate this: there are individual companies who have refused to turn over the information about their patients for the transition to be successful; we are not able to reach them and tell them what was necessary because they were saying, despite the law in the State of New York, they're being obstinate and not sharing that information so I think if you look at the cause for some of this disruption, it is at the hands of those who are intentionally trying to thwart our efforts to make sure we take care of our patients but also stop this wild abuse of taxpayer dollars,' said Governor Hochul. The NYS Dept. of Health set up hotline to assist with CDPAP inquiries: The agency also provided the following response when asked about security measures as it relates to PPL: 1-833-947-8666 Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. 'The Department continues to closely monitor this transition as part of its ongoing commitment to protecting access to care and supporting caregivers.' Additional Information: Regarding the contract, the qualifying language was approved by the State Legislature and the RFP was put out for public bid. The Department of Health followed the standard procurement process, reviewed over 100 responses, and scored each proposal based on the qualifying language, as per state law. At the end of that process, PPL scored the highest and was selected. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
