[Cdpaanys] POLITICO: New York forges ahead with CDPAP transition despite TRO

[Laura Cardwell]

New York forges ahead with CDPAP transition despite TRO
By Katelyn Cordero
04/01/2025 06:16 PM EDT

ALBANY, New York — Public Partnerships LLC was slated to take over New
York's consumer-directed personal assistance program Tuesday, but put that
transition on hold and is now triggering confusion among program
participants following a temporary restraining order.

The order, issued Monday by Judge Frederic Block, locks in a three-day
delay against the state Health Department to consolidate the state's
popular Medicaid program, known as CDPAP. It also allows Public
Partnerships to continue registering and processing applications and bars
the state from “disallowing other fiscal intermediaries from servicing
those CDPAP participants who have not yet registered with PPL.”

Elizabeth Jois, an attorney representing consumers in the federal
litigation against the state, told POLITICO on Tuesday she's received a
near-constant stream of calls from workers confused about where their next
paycheck will come from and how they should track their time.

“We believe that Judge Block intended that no one should go without care
this week,” Jois said. “My voicemail is clogged with people that cannot log
in today, that cannot clock their time in PPL's system.”

Jois and the plaintiffs she represents have requested Block approve a
six-month delay for the transition plan's implementation, but Block said
Monday he'd need more time to decide on how to proceed.

Context: A group of consumers and independent living centers filed suit
Thursday demanding a six-month delay to the program's transition to a new
administrative system. The state was set to transition from 600-some fiscal
intermediaries that run administrative tasks for program participants to
one on Tuesday. Block's order has put that on hold until at least Friday.

But the state is calling the effectiveness of that order into question.
During the hearing, the state's legal team argued they couldn't allow
fiscal intermediaries to continue to operate because they already
terminated their ability to authorize payroll for the program.

A state Department of Health spokesperson said the court order “does not
stop the transition” and does not apply to the 200,000 consumers that have
already registered with the system or their workers. The agency said the
order only applied to individuals who are not registered with the new
administrative system.

“Make no mistake — starting today, Public Partnerships LLC is the statewide
fiscal intermediary for CDPAP, and despite ongoing efforts by hundreds of
middlemen who have bloated the program for many years, hundreds of
thousands of New Yorkers have listened to the facts and taken the necessary
steps to ensure continuation of their home care services,” State Health
Commissioner James McDonald said in a statement. “This is a limited order
and for the vast majority of consumers and workers in the CDPAP program,
nothing changes.”

The department also continued its campaign against alleged misinformation
by fiscal intermediaries, claiming that some of the fiscal service agencies
are spreading falsehoods about the court order's impact.

The Health Department said the order “does not pause” the state's
transition, appearing to contradict a message on Public Partnerships'
website that says the order is “pausing certain elements” of the transition.

Both the state and Public Partnerships say the order does not impact
consumers who have already started their applications and does not prevent
CDPAP participants from continuing to register with the company. The state
did not answer questions regarding how individuals who are not registered
with Public Partnership will get paid this week.

In addition to the confusion caused by Block's order, workers who have
already registered with PPL are reporting issues with the fiscal services
company's timekeeping system. After the Monday hearing, consumers and
workers from across the state who were tuning in virtually cheered the
order, but many said they remain uncertain about how to get paid this week.

A spokesperson for the company told POLITICO that 190,000 personal
assistants have access to Public Partnerships' in-house Time4Care app to
track their time and that 60,000 participants have successfully logged into
the app. The state reported that roughly 65,000 workers have logged hours
with the new system that launched Tuesday.

According to a payment schedule listed on Public Partnerships' website, the
pay period for this week started Sunday, which suggests that between
125,000 and 130,000 personal assistants have yet to log their time for the
first three days of the period. Workers are due to receive their first
paycheck on April 10.

“We have not seen broadscale issues of personal assistants not being able
to track their time,” Public Partnerships spokesperson Lacey Hautzinger
said in a statement to POLITICO. “If a personal assistant is experiencing
issues, they can call PPL's call center for support and time tracking
options or manually track their time and enter it into Time4Care once they
are able to access the app.”

What's next: Senate Health Committee Chair Gustavo Rivera said Majority
Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins has discussed concerns surrounding the
deadline with her conference, but Hochul and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie
continue to hold the line on the state's deadline.

Rivera called the Hochul administration “boneheaded” for its rollout of the
transition and described the state's interpretation of Monday's restraining
order as “cute.”

“As far as they're concerned, everything is hunky-dory,” Rivera said of the
Hochul administration's response to the order. “The horror stories that you
will hear in the next hours and days from people who in good faith tried to
make the transition — and were unable to from things that were out of their
control — will have to do with the rushed rollout, and will be at the fault
of the governor and this administration.”

-- 

Laura Cardwell

Director of Operations & Events

CDPAANYS/CDANY

she/her/hers

(518) 813-9537 ext 1
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