ALBANY – New York’s highly effective 1199 SEIU union is already cashing in on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s disastrous and allegedly rigged revamp of the state’s $11 billion house care Medicaid program, The Put up has discovered.
The politically influential labor group has began shifting to unionize the a whole lot of hundreds of house well being aides employed by way of the allegedly fraud-ridden taxpayer-funded program, and can possible reap an enormous windfall in dues.
Officers from 1199, which supported the overhaul, have been assembly weekly with Public Partnerships LLC, the corporate that was awarded the contract to handle the huge Client Directed Private Help Program as a part of Hochul’s reshuffle.
Hochul’s administration has for months been dogged by allegations that the bidding course of for the roughly $1 billion contract to supervise the CDPAP payroll was rigged in favor of PPL.
“Everybody — taxpayers, shoppers, suppliers — loses if 1199 SEIU unionizes the CDPAP program,” Ken Girardin, a fellow on the Manhattan Institute, advised The Put up.
“There’s no room for a labor union between shoppers and the folks they rent and practice. This may be nothing greater than an excuse to skim money and feed 1199 SEIU’s political equipment,” Girardin mentioned.
“The White Home must step in as a result of this might be one of many worst abuses of taxpayer cash within the historical past of the Medicaid program.”
A rep for 1199 didn’t deny its efforts to unionize the upwards of 200,000 aides in this system. Sources mentioned 1199 might get sufficient members to carry a proper election to create the union starting in 2026.
“Now we have referred to as upon PPL – as we did different corporations that bid for the only fiscal middleman contract – to not waste helpful public {dollars} pressuring their workers and as a substitute enable staff to make their very own choices about forming a union by way of a democratic course of,” 1199 SEIU spokeswoman Rose Ryan wrote in a press release.
“1199 has at all times been an essential stakeholder in CDPAP and we are going to proceed to work carefully with them all through the transition.”
The transfer comes as proof continues to mount suggesting Hochul’s administration labored to steer the contract to PPL — this time in an e-mail unearthed by the federal government watchdog group Empire Middle for Public Coverage.
The communications seem to substantiate that officers from Hochul’s workplace and the state Division of Well being met with reps from PPL on April 4 — weeks earlier than Albany lawmakers signed off on giving the corporate the contract.
The governor pushed for the CDPAP overhaul final 12 months, saying she needed to slash rampant waste, fraud and abuse in this system, which had ballooned to $11 billion from $3 billion in 2018.
The revamp consolidated a whole lot of middlemen corporations — which acted as “fiscal intermediaries” between Medicaid, which funds this system, and the house well being aides employed by it — underneath one firm’s umbrella.
However a letter obtained by The Put up exhibits the corporate handpicked by Hochul’s DOH for the trouble is getting ready to saddle the state with extra prices subsequent 12 months.
The Well being Plans Affiliation, a gaggle representing the insurance coverage suppliers who entrance the payroll cash to PPL earlier than getting reimbursed by the state, accused the corporate of constructing a “vital enhance” to its charges with “no detailed justification” with no substantive involvement from DOH, the letter exhibits.
“If PPL insists on its one-size-fits-all, non-negotiable fee, it’ll put in danger providers to members and can undoubtedly undermine the very monetary financial savings that the State projected,” the HPA wrote.
A spokesperson for PPL maintained that the speed enhance was attributable to a statutory 55-cent spike within the minimal wage for house care staff going into impact in 2026.
“PPL retains nothing from the rise and each added greenback goes on to employee pay. This adjustment doesn’t violate PPL’s contract,” the corporate’s rep mentioned.
Concerning the April 4 assembly with Hochul admin staffers, the PPL spokesperson declined to share particulars of the dialog however mentioned it adopted a authorized, aggressive bidding course of for the contract.
A spokesperson for the governor’s workplace declined to handle PPL’s rising charges and wouldn’t present particulars on the assembly.
Many state lawmakers have soured on the overhaul they signed off on as a part of the state price range final 12 months and have expressed critical issues in regards to the bid-rigging claims.
“As federal cuts threaten to unravel Medicaid’s basis, each public greenback should be protected and directed—towards folks, not revenue,” state Sen. Robert Jackson (D-Manhattan) mentioned.
Jackson and Hochul’s estranged Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado made their fury over the overhaul recognized at a press convention hosted by the advocacy group New York caring majority on the state capitol Wednesday.
Regardless of the mess, Hochul continued to argue the overhaul was a victory, telling reporters final week that her price range workplace projected $1 billion in financial savings year-to-year, half of which from the state and half from the feds.
“It made sense. It was a battle, was a serious struggle, and people are the sort of points I’m prepared to tackle,” Hochul mentioned.
Some fiscal specialists nonetheless query whether or not the state will really lower your expenses general from the transition to 1 firm, provided that round 80,000 shoppers left CDPAP for different house care packages.
“This transition precipitated many tens of hundreds of shoppers to modify to company care which is a costlier type of care,” Michael Kinnucan, Well being Coverage Director on the Fiscal Coverage Institute, advised The Put up.
“A number of the financial savings is illusory.”
