Exclusive | Powerful nurses union scheming to make bank off Hochuls changes to NYs $9B Medicaid program

One of New York’s most powerful unions has been scheming to benefit from Gov.Kathy Hochul’s proposed changes to the state’s allegedly fraud-ridden $9 billion home care Medicaid program, sources say.Service Employees Local Union 1199 SEIU United Health Care Workers, best known as 1199 SEIU, appears to be trying to massively boost its membership and leverage the state into shelling out even more cash for the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program by ultimately increasing wages for workers, according to sources and documents obtained by The Post.The CDPAP — which allows New Yorkers to get paid to take care of loved ones — operates using hundreds of businesses and nonprofits that essentially work as payroll agents between Medicaid and caregivers with minimal oversight.Part of Hochul’s suggested reforms to cut costs in the rapidly growing program involves putting up a huge contract up for bid that would consolidate the work currently done by the 700 middlemen firms under one company chosen by the Department of Health.But the politically powerful 1199 SEIU, which counts more than 450,000 members, has been reaching out to prospective bidders behind the scenes and urging them to agree to 200,000 CDPAP homecare workers unionizing under its umbrella and to increasing their wages, according to the damning documents.“[The prospective bidder] and 1199 SEIU will jointly advocate for funding sufficient to increase wages and benefits for consumer directed personal assistants,” the unsigned memorandum of understanding shared with The Post reads.It further states that the firm who snags the state contract “will remain neutral with respect to the question of whether CDPA’s choose to be represented by 1199 SEIU.”A source familiar with one prospective contractor’s efforts to get the deal said the firm felt pressured to sign the MOU in order to placate the union, which has for years taken an increasingly heavy hand in crafting policy in New York.“1199SE...