Gov. Kathy Hochul has pledged to save a whopping $500 million with an overhaul of the controversial home care program, but is dragging its feet with a slow and erratic rollout.
Hochul and her top advisers moved to consolidate about 700 companies into one hand-picked company to care for elderly relatives in a budget deal last year, followed by consumer personal assistance. program (CDPAP) stands alongside an overhaul of its payroll services.
“We feel confident at this point. We will certainly make some adjustments if we need to make them,” Hochul told reporters after announcing his budget proposal on Tuesday. He told the group.
Last week, the Department of Health proudly touted that approximately 5,000 people have begun the process of transitioning to a new company, Public Partnerships, LLC. The deadline for the state's approximately 250,000 caregivers to transition is April 1.
“The facts and data show that the transition is proceeding efficiently and effectively,” said Jim McDonald, state health director.
But the data shows only 2%.
“We actually feel like we're going to see these numbers go up very quickly,” said Kathryn Garcia, Hochul's state operations director.
Garcia said existing intermediaries have been slow to turn over data about consumers to states and PPL, which could reach out to transition caregivers directly.
ppl's The bid was about $1.8 billion The proposal to the DOH for the five-year contract was announced as part of one of the ongoing lawsuits seeking to halt the transition.
Hochul's administration said the move to a single payroll processor is aimed at reducing the program's rapidly expanding growth. This is itself one of the more important factors in New York's rapidly growing Medicaid spending.
State departments of the budget project $504 million in savings as a result of the move to one fiscal intermediary, but it's unclear how accurate the projections are due to an alleged lack of hard data available to the state.
Several incumbent companies are suing DOH, arguing that handing over data about consumers without consent violates their privacy rights under HIPAA.
According to internal email PPL's ”facilitators”, revealed in one of the lawsuits, have access to information about all personal assistants in the database and can also contact them directly.
According to an offer letter given to one personal assistant at PPL obtained by the Post, the company offered to pay the Brooklyn-based caregiver below the minimum wage for a home aide.
The letter said caregivers earn $18.10 per hour. Minimum wage for home workers In New York City, it is set at $19.10. The minimum wage for home care workers in the Upstate is $18.10.
“During the implementation period, the payroll and benefits processing system will be configured to meet the requirements of New York employers,” PPL wrote in its bid proposal to take over payroll services.
Just above that line of PPL's proposal is a laudatory citation attributed to the powerful healthcare union 1199SEIU.
“We know that your organization understands how to support the consumers and personal assistants who make this program work,” the citation reads.
A spokesperson for 1199SEIU previously posted in September that it “does not advocate publicly or privately against any particular bidder.”
Hochul's integration plan, ostensibly intended to reduce waste, fraud and abuse, is also a major boon for 1199SEIU, which is working behind the scenes and could unionize nearly a quarter of home-based personnel. That's what I'm trying to do.
Several lawsuits allege that 1199SEIU helped rig PPL's bids.
The transition is also beset by a multimillion-dollar resistance campaign from existing obscure payment services that Hochul's government has turned into a boogeyman. their own advertising campaign Calling out corporations for “spreading lies.”
“This shoddy transition guarantees service interruptions for those most in need and is just the latest evidence of a disastrous transition courtesy of Governor Hochul and an out-of-state company,” said the group's executive director. Bryan O'Malley That's what a financial intermediary told the Post.
“They're trying to do a great job of scaring people,” Hochul said Tuesday.
She denied that the state was trying to deprive people of their care.
“We want to make sure we have controls and safeguards to make sure that no one should be afraid and that it was created by these individuals. So we're going to get it right.” said Hochul.
