New York lawmakers on Thursday unveiled new bombshell proof suggesting Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration allegedly rigged an enormous contract course of for an $11 billion Medicaid dwelling healthcare program.
Aggravated state senators referred to as the listening to in Decrease Manhattan following months of controversy over the revamp of the Client Directed Private Help Program.
The lawmakers spent hours grilling Well being Commissioner James McDonald and executives of Public Partnerships LLC, the corporate that was awarded the no-bid contract to handle the CDPAP scheme.
State Sen. James Skoufis (D-Orange) who chairs the Committee on Investigations and Authorities Operations, led the testy listening to — scrutinizing whether or not the method to award the contract, which may probe to be a windfall for PPL, was rigged within the agency’s favor.
He confronted McDonald with a draft of state laws from April 2024 that will have handed the contract to PPL, suggesting officers weren’t really contemplating different corporations. PPL ultimately gained the contract months later.
”There’s a invoice draft from early April that names PPL. It wasn’t within the enacted model as a result of the Senate pushed again on a no-bid contract, however the government got here to us naming PPL in a no-bid contract,” Skoufis charged.
“Then, miraculously, PPL will get the award just a few months later.”
The existence of the draft invoice was first famous by the Albany Instances-Union in June. It reads: “The division of well being, by the commissioner, shall contract with Public Partnerships, LLC (‘statewide FI’) to supply on a statewide foundation the providers of a fiscal middleman.”
McDonald claimed he by no means noticed the draft invoice and maintained that the contract course of was above board.
“Senator, I actually don’t know how one can remark a couple of invoice draft as a result of I by no means noticed that,” he mentioned.
The governor pushed for the overhaul, ostensibly so as to minimize down on rampant waste, fraud and abuse in this system, which had grown from $3 billion in 2018 to $11 billion in 2024, per McDonald’s testimony.
The overhaul entails consolidating a whole bunch of middlemen corporations who acted as “fiscal intermediaries” between Medicaid, which funds this system, and the house well being aides employed by it below one firm’s umbrella.
However many senators have soured on the transfer, after voting to approve it as a part of final yr’s state finances.
A PPL government who was grilled later within the listening to claimed that the corporate had no contact with the governor’s workplace or well being division previous to the contract course of starting.
“The CEO all the way down to you, down to each different worker on the agency didn’t have one single telephone name, electronic mail, textual content, any dialog previous to enactment of the finances in Could?” Skoufis pressed.
“Right,” Patty Byrnes, PPL’s vp of presidency affairs mentioned.
In an announcement, Hochul’s workplace didn’t deny that it drafted the invoice Skoufis offered, and maintained that the choice course of for PPL was above board.
“The shift to a single fiscal middleman went by a typical procurement course of at DOH, following the legislation handed by the State Legislature – and no State officers knew who could be chosen till the procurement course of was full,” a spokesperson for Hochul wrote in an announcement.
“Now that we’ve ended the ‘wild west’ of the previous system and moved to single fiscal middleman with robust State oversight, New York can successfully defend CDPAP for dwelling care customers and employees and make sure the program delivers the most effective outcomes for individuals who want it,” the assertion mentioned.
A number of lawmakers have been visibly livid with McDonald, who confirmed up apparently unprepared to quote particular information concerning the transition of a whole bunch of hundreds of this system’s recipients and their caregivers when requested.
“I didn’t deliver these numbers with me,” McDonald mentioned, when requested by Sen. Gustavo Rivera (D-Bronx) to supply the variety of employees who had been paid as of early April.
McDonald additionally drew jeers from the viewers and extra ire from lawmakers when he claimed he wasn’t conscious of extensively reported points and bid rigging allegations surrounding this system.
The well being commissioner repeatedly blamed “misinformation” for the company and PPL’s failure to make sure a whole bunch of hundreds of homecare recipients and their caregivers have been transition to the brand new middlemen by the statutory April 1 deadline.
“I feel you’re simply persevering with to perpetuate the misrepresentation that you just declare was bestowed upon this program,” state Sen. Siela Bynoe (D-Nassau) mentioned, excoriating the well being commissioner.
“You’re not giving us numbers. You’re not giving us information. You’re not giving something to refute the truth that this contract was not, in truth, transitioned correctly to begin, and that you’ve got any kind of pointers, protocol and a course of in place to make sure that you’re sustaining what they’re really contractually required to offer us,” she mentioned.
Harlem state Sen. Cordell Cleare (D-Manhattan) informed Byrnes and McDonald that their responses have been “an insult” to New Yorkers.
Skoufis stopped in need of calling McDonald a liar, however mentioned his statements have been “seemingly unbelievable.”
He and Rivera promised a observe as much as the listening to, however didn’t specify if that meant subpoenaing for extra data.
“Loads of the statements from each of them have been gorgeous and seemingly unbelievable. And we’re going to proceed to pursue form of these threads,” Skoufis mentioned.
