CDPAP SUBCONTRACTORS: Eleven independent living centers have officially been selected to operate as subcontractors under an overhaul of the state’s consumer directed home care program, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Tuesday. The firms are among more than 30 companies being subcontracted to broker the program, known as the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program or CDPAP, under Public Partnership LLC, a contractor selected to take over the program beginning April 1. The program allows individuals to hire and manage their own home care workers and has led to an explosion of middlemen companies, known as fiscal intermediaries, administering the program. Hochul and state lawmakers approved a plan to rein in the number of intermediaries, which the governor said would help reduce fraud but which many intermediaries argue will upend services for more than 240,000 customers.
MEDICAL DEBT: Medical debt will no longer appear on consumer credit reports under a final rule announced by the Biden administration on Tuesday. The rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will remove $49 billion in unpaid medical bills from the credit reports of 15 million Americans, according to the agency. In New York, medical debt is already banned from consumer credit reports in most cases under a state law that took effect in 2023.
