New York Attorney General Letitia James is looking into accusations that medical services provider DocGo mishandled migrants in their care, a spokesperson for her office said Monday.
The provider is being accused of giving inaccurate information to migrants about employment opportunities, as well as allegedly making threats and hurting their ability to obtain asylum. This includes allegedly enrolling migrants in a health care plan that they were not eligible for.
DocGo secured a $432 million contract from New York City to facilitate migrants' resettlement around the state.
The AG probe was first reported in The New York Times.
"Today, we received a letter from the AG with a request for basic information to understand the scope of our services and how we ensure compliance with applicable law. Since the launch of our program, we’ve worked with government partners to ensure we are delivering excellent, compassionate care to asylum seekers," a company spokesperson for DocGo told Spectrum News 1 in a statement. "DocGo's asylee sites have received many visits from multiple city and state oversight agencies since our contract began, and we've always cooperated in a fully transparent manner. We look forward to working with the AG's office in the same manner and providing the requested information expeditiously."
Gov. Kathy Hochul meanwhile announced an additional $20 million is being sent to New York City to speed up casework filing for more than 30,000 asylum seekers there.
The goal is to further support asylum seekers getting legal work status and leaving shelters.
In the past few weeks, upstate officials have expressed their frustration with DocGo over security and transparency of transporting migrants.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz recently discussed the need for a new and improved security plan regarding DocGo after saying he plans to refuse additional resettlements of migrants. Albany County Executive Dan McCoy said last week that DocGO CEO Anthony Capone has "been a bad actor since the beginning of this" after a series of communication missteps with the provider, saying DocGo didn't give local officials vital information like who was coming, what languages they speak and what age they were.