New York is facing another lawsuit alleging it rigged the bidding process to fund Gov. Kathy Hochul’s move to reform the massive $9 billion homecare program.
New filing alleges powerful healthcare union 1199SEIU was ready to help Controversial Firm Public Partnerships LLC Secure a multi-million dollar contract to handle payment services for a rapidly growing consumer directed personal assistance program.
At least five lawsuits have been filed so far to highlight Hochul’s overhaul of the CDPAP, two of which specifically allege bid rigging on the part of the governor’s administration.
Hochul and the state legislature, as part of reforming the allegedly fraudulent program, agreed to get rid of nearly 700 middlemen firms that serve as payroll agents between CDPAP caregivers and Medicaid in favor of a single contractor. used to work.
Critics, including existing middleman firms like Mark HomeCare LLC – which filed the latest lawsuit in Albany Supreme Court – screaming badly About the procedure for providing bids to Public Partnership LLC.
According to the Dec. 6 lawsuit, Ronna Shapiro, vice president of 1199SEIU, brazenly told some home care agencies on a Zoom call in June that she knew PPL would get the contract — despite the state health department still saying that for the next two months. Accepting offers.
“MS. Shapiro stated that 1199SEIU had met with DOH representatives and learned that DOH would be awarding a single, statewide FI contract to PPL,” lawyers for Mark HomeCare LLC wrote in the filing.
The Post reported early april PPL was being touted as a potential contractor during state budget negotiations.
The lawsuit also alleges that the DOH provided 1199SEIU – one of New York’s most powerful unions – a list of all middlemen firms, known as fiscal intermediaries.
Post Revealed in September 1199SEIU was reaching out to potential bidders for the massive contract and asking them to pledge to remain neutral in its efforts to unionize the nearly 250,000 CDPAP caregivers under the overhaul.
“We tried to talk to all potential bidders to ensure that the program will be able to serve consumers and that workers will be compensated fairly,” a 1199SEIU spokesperson said Monday.
“We had no information about which firm would be awarded the contract until the official announcement,” the representative said, calling the allegations in the recent lawsuit “categorically false.”
The spokesperson declined to provide a recording of the June meeting with Shapiro mentioned in the lawsuit.
No other details about the meeting were provided in the lawsuit, but the filing included an email that showed a list of home care agency representatives who were invited. None of them responded to The Post’s inquiries.
A PPL spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Hochul’s spokesperson denied the allegations.
“The state health department followed a standard procurement process based on eligibility language approved by the state legislature,” the representative said in a statement.
PPL is expected to begin transferring approximately 250,000 people receiving care under CDPAP to its payment processing services on January 6, 2025.
A PPL spokesperson told The Post earlier this month that implementation of the new consolidated program is “on track.”
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