New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D) administration has faced lawsuits alleging it rigged the bidding process for the state’s controversial overhaul of a $9 billion homecare program.
A December lawsuit alleged that the powerful healthcare union 1199 Service Employees International Union (SEIU) helped Public Partnerships LLC secure a multi-million dollar contract to take care of payment services for the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP).
Several lawsuits have sought to unravel Hochul’s overhaul of CDPAP, two of which alleged a rigged bidding process by the governor’s administration.
The New York Post wrote:
Hochul and the state legislature, as part of the gov’s revamp of the allegedly fraud-ridden program, agreed to get rid of nearly 700 middlemen firms that acted as payroll agents between CDPAP caregivers and Medicaid in favor of one hand-picked contractor.
Critics, including the existing middlemen firms like Mark’s Homecare LLC — which filed the latest suit in Albany Supreme Court — have been crying foul about the process leading up Public Partnerships LLC [PPL] being awarded the bid.
A December 6 lawsuit alleged that 1199 SEIU Vice President Rona Shapiro told home care agencies that it knew PPL would receive the contract even though the state Department of Health would still receive proposals for two more months.
“Ms. Shapiro stated that 1199SEIU had met with DOH representatives and learned that DOH would award the single, statewide FI contract to PPL,” the December 6 suit wrote.
The Post reported that 1199 SEIU sought agreements in advance to unionize the roughly 300,000 home health aides working under CDPAP.
“We sought to talk with all potential bidders to express our interest in ensuring the program would remain able to serve consumers and workers would be fairly compensated,” an 1199 SEIU spokesperson said in December.
“We had no knowledge about which firm would be awarded the contract until the official announcement,” the spokesperson said, calling the allegations in the lawsuit “blatantly false.”
A Hochul spokesperson denied the allegations in a statement in December.
“The State Department of Health followed the standard procurement process based on the qualifying language approved by the State Legislature,” the spokesperson said.
The New York Health Plan Association and other groups in February warned that thousands of disabled Empire State veterans could be forced into hospitals and nursing homes as the result of Hochul’s controversial union overhaul of the home care system.
“In the worst case, the care alternative for many CDPAP consumers will be a hospital or nursing home, if any capacity even exists,” the groups wrote in late February to the New York Department of Health.
“We urge the Department to develop a contingency plan ready to be executed before the end of February to avoid extensive disruption,” the letter to the Hochul administration continued.
