CDPAP UPDATE: A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Thursday delaying the deadline for the overhaul of the consumer-directed personal assistance program until June 6. The order, agreed-upon by attorneys for the state and home care users on Wednesday, gives home care users until May 15 and workers until June 6 to sign up with the state’s new system to pay caregivers. The judge’s decision is the latest update in the state’s contentious home care overhaul, which has been defined by lagging enrollment and technical challenges. Read more here.
DOJ WEIGHS IN: The Trump administration is keeping an eye on the state’s transition of the consumer-directed personal assistance program, citing “significant concerns” with whether the state misled the public about its home care overhaul and put patients’ private data at risk. The Department of Justice issued a statement of interest on Wednesday in a lawsuit that has delayed the state’s home care transition deadline, stating that the federal government will monitor the litigation to ensure that the transition does not interrupt care for home care users. The filing comes amid heightened interest among Trump officials in the state’s home care overhaul; U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote on social media last week that the feds were reviewing payment changes within the program.
IMAGING UPGRADE: The Winifred Masterson Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in White Plains plans to purchase a new CT scanner and build a new room to house it. The roughly $3 million project was recently submitted to the state Department of Health for approval. The new room will be connected to the 150-bed specialty hospital’s radiology department. While the facility, part of Montefiore Health System, currently has X-ray and ultrasound machines available on its main campus, patients requiring CT scans are transported off-site to other facilities, delaying care and increasing costs associated with staffing and transportation. The project, which is partially funded through a statewide grant program, will take an estimated five months to complete, according to a filing with the state.
