Hochul confronted over CDPAP overhaul during visit to Crossgates Mall

ALBANY, N.Y (WRGB) — ONLYON6: Gov. Kathy Hochul’s visit to Crossgates Mall on Tuesday kicked off with a confrontation by a member of the public over the management changes coming to the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP).

Located just outside Albany, the governor stopped at the mall for an event to promote her new inflation refund proposal aimed at alleviating financial pressures on New Yorkers.

CDPAP allows individuals with disabilities hire caregivers of their choice, often family members or trusted aids, with approximately 250,000 elderly and disabled New Yorkers using the program.

On Oct. 1, the governor announced that Georgia-based firm Public Partnerships LLC (PPL) will take over managing the program, replacing around 600 companies currently involved.

In front of news cameras, disability rights advocate Julie Farrar confronted the governor, claiming the overhaul will ultimately negatively impact the services that CDPAP consumers rely on.

The state claims the change is intended to prevent fraud, but critics, like Farrar, argue it could lead to service disruptions.

“My biggest fear is that it will just be a commodification of the services. It will be this cookie-cutter approach to try to manage services and manage all of the components that previously we had been able to manage,” Farrar said in an exclusive interview with CBS6’s Briana Supardi hours after her heated exchange with the governor.

She also expressed fears that the transition will lead to issues that could disrupt services.

“There’s probably going to be some paycheck delays, some little snafus, people’s routing information for their banking information isn’t going to transfer over properly,” she expressed.

Current and eligible CDPAP consumers can begin their transition to PPL starting Jan. 6, 2025. Transitions must be done by March 28, 2025 in order to continue receiving services under the program. PPL will officially take over management for CDPAP in April 2025.

The Alliance to Protect Home Care, a coalition of home care companies, has been lobbying against the reforms, arguing that the transition is rushed and could compromise vital services.

“These New Yorkers are just a few of the hundreds of thousands of elderly and disabled folks whose lives are at risk with PPL and their reckless history of mismanagement,” said Bryan O’Malley, the Executive Director of the Alliance to Protect Home Care. “We will make sure Governor Hochul and our elected officials hear these testimonies and understand exactly what is at stake. We can’t have New York become another PPL disaster”

A spokesperson for the state dismissed these concerns as misinformation.

“The Governor understands how important CDPAP is for New Yorkers — and this process will ensure that CDPAP home care users and their caregivers are protected. It’s deeply disappointing that the unethical business executives that fund the Alliance to Protect Home Care are spreading blatant lies to scare vulnerable New Yorkers into thinking they’re losing access to home care, which is of course completely false. These shady middlemen are pushing their campaign of lies in a desperate attempt to continue boosting their profits at the expense of millions of New York taxpayers. Our reforms will protect home care for New Yorkers and we’re looking forward to delivering a stronger CDPAP through the statewide partnership that takes effect in April 2025,” stated Sam Spokony, spokesperson for the governor’s office.

Spokony added that the reforms are necessary due to CDPAP becoming financially unsustainable, with spending nearly quadrupling in recent years to more than $9 billion last year.