[Cdpaanys] Times Union Editorial Board: A careless approach to care

[Laura Cardwell]

*Editorial: A careless approach to care*
*The home care program transition isn’t going well, and the state seems
unable to admit it.*Times Union
<https://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/editorial-careless-approach-care-20257690.php>
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Editorial Board,

Last year, when Public Partnerships LLC was chosen to administer New York’s
home care services program, this editorial board made two observations.
First, we wrote, the state had better be sure about its choice of vendor,
because PPL’s operations in other states raised a number of red flags about
its ability to manage the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program.
And second, we asserted that the state needed to ensure PPL’s operations
are fully transparent and accountable — both to affirm that the company is
fulfilling its mission to help New Yorkers, and because preventing fraud
was the state’s goal in choosing PPL as program vendor in the first place.

Well, so far, PPL and the state have stumbled on all points — and the
company hasn’t even fully taken over yet.

The Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program lets eligible Medicaid
recipients pay a family member or friend to care for them, with the goal of
helping people live independently in their homes for as long as they can.
The caregivers help with day-to-day tasks such as dressing, cooking or
cleaning, along with managing medications and more complicated care.

PPL was chosen to be the sole program administrator, replacing hundreds of
fiscal intermediaries that previously handled the payments and paperwork, a
system the Hochul administration said was fouled by fraud and inefficiency.

But over the past several months, some who've tried to enroll say PPL’s
process is rife with technical problems and poor communication. A month
ago, as health care advocates warned that registrations weren’t on pace and
that too many people were being left out, the state continued to insist
everything was fine.

And when the April 1 deadline got here? The Department of Health pushed
back the deadline by a month and asked state employees to "volunteer" to
help get people registered.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and Department of Health Commissioner James McDonald have
insisted that PPL is capable of managing the program. If that’s so, why are
state workers being pressed to do the work the private vendor is being paid
to do? Effectively, that’s asking New York taxpayers to pay for the same
thing twice.

Commissioner McDonald has blamed misinformation and self-interested
fearmongering for disrupting the transition: “These are people who are
comfortable interfering with other people’s health care,” he said. What a
coincidence: People worried about staying safely in their homes could have
said the same thing about the state's seemingly cavalier attitude toward
their concerns. New Yorkers depend on this program — literally — to make it
through each day.

Earlier this week, a federal judge ordered the Department of Health to keep
working with existing intermediaries while the transition is ongoing.
That's a sensible move to make sure no one's home care is disrupted — which
is what everyone involved should want.

And the stakes of getting this care program right couldn't be higher:
Consider New York’s abrupt loss of $300 million in federal health services
funding. Those funds weren’t slated for home care, but the rollback
emphasizes that in this uncertain environment, the state cannot afford
inefficiencies.

If PPL can't live up to the terms of its contract, that should be grounds
for corrective action and consequences. So far, the state’s handling of the
transition looks less like oversight or accountability and more like
covering its backside.

-- 

Laura Cardwell

Director of Operations & Events

CDPAANYS/CDANY

she/her/hers

(518) 813-9537 ext 1
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