Concerns around health data privacy could hinder the state’s already-rushed plan to consolidate a popular Medicaid-funded home care program.
Nassau County Judge Jerome Murphy issued a temporary restraining order Monday that bars the Health Department from punishing some home care companies that refuse to turn over patients’ data for the state’s consolidation of the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, or CDPAP. The approximately 600 middleman companies that currently administer the program, known as fiscal intermediaries, have repeatedly fought to halt the consolidation, which could put them out of business by April 1.
As a part of the transition, the Health Department has ordered the third-party administrator companies to turn over health data for the roughly 250,000 people enrolled in the home care program to the state and financial services firm Public Partnerships LLC, or PPL, which will take over CDPAP in April. Companies that failed to comply with that directive could be kicked out of the Medicaid program, according to a memo issued by the Health Department in December – a fate that would put them out of business.
But per the judge’s ruling, the state can’t eject the roughly 50 fiscal intermediaries that brought the lawsuit from the Medicaid program while the litigation plays out. Though the delay is temporary and applies to a small subset of businesses that currently administer the program, it could slow down the transfer of data for the approximately 150,000 consumers that those companies serve, according to Bryan O’Malley, executive director of the Alliance to Protect Home Care, a lobbying group that represents the home care companies named in the lawsuit.
The order could pose barriers for the state’s controversial process to consolidate the $9 billion home care program. Spending on the program has skyrocketed in the past decade, due to an increasing need for community-based services and the program’s popular model that allows friends and family members to get paid by the state to provide home care. Gov. Kathy Hochul has said that administrative cuts are necessary to alleviate costs within the state’s Medicaid program, but home care advocates and industry groups have criticized what they say is a rushed transition that could disrupt services.
“Rather than forcing home care companies to share consumers’ personal health information in a rushed and potentially illegal manner, the Department of Health and Governor Hochul should work with us to improve home care before the state becomes another PPL disaster,” O’Malley said.
Sam Spokony, a spokesman for the governor’s office, said that the order was limited and temporary, noting that the state’s CDPAP transition is well underway and expected to be complete by April 1.
“All personal data is and will always be protected throughout this transition, and we will continue working with all stakeholders to deliver a better, stronger CDPAP for home care users and all New Yorkers,” Spokony said.
