APPLICATION DENIED: Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor rejected an emergency application to stop the transition of the state’s consumer directed personal assistance program to a single broker ahead of an April 1 statutory deadline. On Monday, Sotomayor denied a bid from lawyers with Gibson Dunn & Cutcher who argued the state’s plan would remove the clients of hundreds of intermediary companies providing the payroll and HR services for aides in the program, who are hired and managed by the recipient. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who pushed the transition of the $11 billion Medicaid program through the legislative process last year, has faced mounting press to postpone or cancel the program from fiscal intermediaries and a growing group of lawmakers, labor and worker and patient advocates. In a separate case brought by New York Legal Assistance Group on behalf of consumers, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order that blocks the state from shutting down all fiscal intermediaries so that aides can continue to get paid while the transition continues.
UNHEALTHY MARKETING: A group of more than 50 doctors is pushing the state Legislature to pass the Predatory Marketing Prevention Act, which would place restrictions on companies marketing unhealthy food to children, in the final stretch of state budget negotiations. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, the doctors called on the leaders to pass the bill, which is intended to cut down on deceptive advertising that promotes junk food and beverages that account for a leading cause of childhood diabetes cases. The marketing practices predominantly target Black children, leading to higher risk of diet-related diseases, the doctors wrote. The bill has advanced in the state Senate and was included in the chamber’s budget proposal this year but was not in the Assembly.
