State lawmakers are demanding more answers after growing evidence suggested that Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration allegedly steered the contract for a massive $11 billion Medicaid home care program.
A rep for Public Partnerships, LLC, admitted in a letter sent to state Senators investigating the disastrous transition process to the new firm that she falsely stated under oath last month that the company hadn’t been in touch with state officials — even after she was presented with a copy of a draft piece of legislation with the company’s name on it.
“Something here stinks,” State Sen. Steven Rhoads (R-Nassau) said in a statement to The Post after the bombshell admission from PPL, a company hired to handle payment services in the revamped Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, or CDPAP.
“These families deserve to know the substance of those communications; who was involved; whether they influenced the bid drafting and selection process and if so, whether anyone in the Hochul Administration or her donors benefited as a result.
“We want answers. And so should all New Yorkers,” Rhoads concluded.
Patty Byrnes, PPL’s vice president of government relations, had denied there were communications between the Department of Health and the company before the enactment of the budget — but admitted those statements “were not accurate” in a letter to Senators obtained by The Post.
“There were general communications with DOH staff (of which I was unaware at the time I testified) in late March and early April when NY was considering the possibility of moving to a single FI program,” PPL’s letter said.
State Senate Investigations Committee Chair Jim Skoufis (D-Orange) co-chaired the hearing last month with Health Committee Chair Gustavo Rivera (D-Bronx), and promised a follow up.
“All these statements, all these amendments to testimony, all of these comments now, since the hearing only elicit more questions,” Skoufis said.
The company has, so far, remained cooperative with the investigation, though subpoenas are not off the table, per Skoufis.
Rivera said there was still “harm happening to patients and workers” after a chaotic rollout of the changes which consolidated hundreds of fiscal intermediaries that handled payroll services for home care aides to one hand-picked by the state during backroom budget negotiations.
“Senator Skoufis and I are clear that PPL’s handling of the transition has been unacceptable and they will be taken to task to ensure that New Yorkers receive reliable home care from workers who are paid appropriately,” Rivera said in a statement.
The admission from PPL of ongoing discussions creates a bit of a headache for the Hochul administration as it continues to handle fallout over the change — which sparked widespread outrage as hundreds of thousands of home care aides and their recipients faced bureaucratic nightmares and missed paychecks as they transitioned to the new firm.
During last month’s hearing on CDPAP, Health Commissioner Jim McDonald had similarly denied under oath that he and DOH had been in touch with the firm prior to the bidding process.
“New York is a big state. You hear a lot in New York all the time,” McDonald said, asked about the bid rigging accusations.
“My team did an honest [request for proposals] and an honest bid and did an honest evaluation. And they did a good job of this. We did what we were supposed to do,” McDonald maintained.
A spokesperson for Hochul didn’t respond to PPL’s admission nor deny that her office was in touch with the company ahead of finalizing the state budget last year.
“The shift to a single fiscal intermediary went through a standard procurement process at DOH, following the law passed by the State Legislature – and no State officials knew who would be selected until the procurement process was complete,” a spokesperson for the governor wrote in a previously released statement.
PPL declined to comment further.
In a statement, a DOH spokesperson maintained the commissioner did not know his employees were communicating with PPL.
“As Commissioner McDonald testified before Senate leaders, he was not aware of any communications between Department of Health staff and PPL that occurred prior to the procurement process,” the spokesperson said.