Exclusive | Home care agency exec. accuses Gov. Hochul team of rigging bid process for $9B program in back-door deal

A home care provider claimed the Hochul administration rigged the bid to oversee the state’s allegedly fraud-ridden $9 billion home care Medicaid program — picking one company in a backdoor deal.The Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program lets Medicaid recipients hire relatives or loved ones as paid personal home care aides.In order to curb costs in the home care program, the state Health Department selected one firm, Public Partnerships LLC, to replace hundreds of businesses and nonprofits that essentially work as payroll agents or middlemen between Medicaid and caregivers with minimal oversight.The change means the home care agencies from across the state — the fiscal intermediaries — will see their contracts terminated as part of the overhaul, and they are fighting to block the change.Carlos Martinez, executive director of the Rockland County-based BRIDGES home care agency, said during a meeting on April 9, a state disability official told him and other current home care contractors that Public Partnerships LLC would take over a statewide fiscal intermediary.He claimed the revelation showed the bidding process was tainted.“I remember this well because I was shocked in the moment to be told directly by a government official that the State had already made a decision as to which company would be selected as the fiscal intermediary for all of New York,” Martinez said in a sworn statement provided in a lawsuit filed against the state by another home care provider, FreedomCare LLC.The home care providers claimed the bidding process was still underway when the state official announced that Public Partnership had been awarded the contract.“This smoking gun testimony proves what all of Albany has heard since April, as we’ve alleged: Governor Hochul and the Department of Health have rigged the bid for Public Partnerships, LLC (PPL) since the start,” said Akiva Shapiro, a partner with Gibson Dunn who is representing the plaintiff, FreedomCare.“...