State leaders Monday blamed disinformation campaigns as the reason the state Health Department will give thousands of New Yorkers who use or work for a $9 billion home care program another month to register with a new management company.
Thousands of people who use or work for the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) who have not completed registration with Public Partnership LLC will get a 30-day grace period, health officials said, as many people await answers to their questions about the transition that takes effect April 1.
The late registration window was announced six days before the deadline as tens of thousands of consumers and their caregivers have not completed registration.
"Looking at the patients who are vulnerable, they're not at fault, the workers, they're not at fault either," Health Department Commissioner Dr. James McDonald told reporters. "They've been misled. ...Any one left behind, though, it's too important a group."
The commissioner blamed advocacy groups the department has cited for spreading misinformation McDonald alleges has slowed the transition.
About 140,000 program users have registered with the new company and about 30,000 users have started the transition, while roughly 55,000 people have planned to switch to more expensive personal home care services.
McDonald stressed the 30-day window is not a delay, and PPL will still take over CDPAP in the state in less than a week and force more than 600 smaller companies, known as fiscal intermediaries, out of business.
"The only fiscal intermediary that's going to be paid after April 1, just short seven days from today, is PPL," the health commissioner said.
But the grace period has sparked more questions from program users, workers and lawmakers.
Home care workers who miss the April 1 deadline but complete registration by the end of next month will receive retroactive pay for the weeks their current fiscal intermediary did not exist. Workers and consumers will have to rely on paper records, and will not be able to access the federal electronic verification system.
"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. "Now, they are creating more chaos and confusion by asking home care workers to work without pay and without even the most basic protections. An I.O.U doesn’t pay for rent or groceries and it doesn't cover late fees and overdraft fees. PPL has proven time and again they are not up to this task, and it is well past time the state cancels their contract."
The New York Association on Independent Living blasted the state grace period and leaders for shifting the blame of the failed transition on consumers.
"It does not address any of the real issues which have delayed the transition, which are PPL’s and the state itself, which include antiquated technology, lack of language access, long wait times and lack of call backs from PPL, untrained PPL staff and inadequate public outreach, just to name a few," according to the association. "Further, it proceeds with shutting down all other Fiscal Intermediaries in the state, leaving no safety net.
"The executive’s efforts remain focused on finding any means possible — including legally questionable tactics — not to delay the deadline rather than face an honest conversation about the gaps in the process and working collaboratively with partners to address them."
A growing number of lawmakers want more time, even with the late registration window, and joined protestors Monday to slow the transition and get it right, arguing that's what disabled and elderly New Yorkers deserve.
"Slow down! There's no rush in this," said Sen. Robert Jackson, a Manhattan Democrat. "And that's what we ask you to do here today."
State Police arrested four CDPAP recipients who use wheelchairs while protesting the transition timeline at the Capitol.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said fiscal intermediaries have made the transition difficult and threaten the safety of people relying on home care.
She continues to defend the timeline approved by lawmakers in last year's budget, adding she won't assist the companies that refused to give the state data about CDPAP recipients and its workers.
"I'm not going to clean up the mess of these companies and give them a grace period, they don't get a day," the governor said Monday. "Who we will help, who I've always cared about and are my No. 1 priority, are the patients and their caregivers."
Several people against the change have refused to register on purpose, but many lawmakers continue to hear from concerned program users who haven't received a return phone call from PPL for days and are worried they won't transition in time.
PPL President Maria Perrin would not answer what the company will do differently to ensure everyone is registered by April 30 and said it's a lie that calls go unanswered.
"Because of the disinformation, the calls into the call center was slow in January, and now I think they're picking up," Perrin said.
Senate Republicans wrote a letter Monday asking U.S. Health Department Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. to investigate the state's CDPAP transition.
State Democratic lawmakers did not sign on to a bill that Republicans introduced last week to extend the deadline through July, despite the pushback being bipartisan.
"This isn't a partisan issue," said Assemblyman Josh Jensen, the ranking Republican on the chamber's Health Committee. "Nobody who has called me or reached out to me has said, 'Blame the Democrats, blame the Republicans.' They're nervous. And when people are scared, government should listen."
Hochul has been adamant the transition is necessary because New York was spending about $3.2 billion on CDPAP in 2018, which has skyrocketed to $11.2 billion last year because of mismanagement by the hundreds of smaller companies.
With more than 600 fiscal intermediaries, New York had the largest number of CDPAP facilitators in the nation. One was recently indicted in an alleged $68 million fraud scheme.
