New York State is proceeding with much-needed reforms to the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) that will protect home care users and all New York taxpayers. To complete that process, the State will follow through on the April 1 implementation deadline that was agreed to by the State Legislature last year.
But it’s also important to know that the State has a plan to protect CDPAP consumers and workers who register in the days or weeks after the April 1 deadline has passed.
To be clear — this doesn’t mean that anyone in this administration has “caved” on our reforms, as some have falsely claimed. On April 1, we’re still putting an end to years of runaway administrative costs — and now we’re taking additional steps to protect consumers who’ve been subjected to a shameful misinformation campaign.
As a reminder, our efforts to strengthen this program have been long overdue. CDPAP allows members who are eligible for home care to choose their own personal caregivers, friends or family members. However, a lack of centralized oversight in CDPAP put the program at risk of a fiscal crisis. Expenditures have tripled during the past eight years, hitting over $11.2 billion in 2024.
That’s why we’re creating a stronger and more fiscally sustainable CDPAP by transitioning 600 industry middlemen to a single fiscal intermediary—Public Partnerships LLC, or PPL. Eligibility and caregiver choice remain unchanged as a single fiscal intermediary manages payroll and benefits, replacing middlemen who created unnecessary spending, including too much waste, fraud and abuse.
For those who question why we’d need to address these problems look at the business interests who launched a $10 million dark money campaign to block our reforms, or the companies who were recently cited for spreading misinformation about the transition process.
Despite the misinformation spread by businesses seeking to protect their own profits, we’ve made incredible progress with this transition, as hundreds of thousands of consumers and workers have already registered with PPL. However, it clear that the misinformation campaign has made it harder for some consumers to register on time.
That’s why, even as we proceed with these much-needed reforms, the State’s top priority remains protecting consumers and caregivers, including those who may require a bit more time to transition to PPL.
So, if you’re a CDPAP consumer or worker and you don’t complete your registration until after the April 1 deadline, we have a plan to protect you.
What is the plan?
A late registration window will allow CDPAP workers to complete the transition to PPL in April and receive retroactive payment for the hours they have worked since April 1.
For workers – even if you were unable to register with PPL before April 1, as long as you register by April 30, you will not lose your fairly earned pay for hours worked in April.
For consumers – you can continue to receive the care that you need and have your worker be paid after April 1, as long as you and your caregivers register with PPL in April.
It’s as simple as that. As we’ve said all along, our top priority is to protect CDPAP home care users and their caregivers. That will not change.
Meanwhile, as we approach and move past April 1, all the transition resources that have existed since January will remain in place.
Consumers and workers can continue to reach PPL by phone, online, or in person to start or complete their registration or to ask questions about the process. They can also reach out to one of PPL’s dozens of locally based facilitators for additional help and guidance on the registration process.
We look forward to delivering a better, stronger CDPAP – and we’ll continue working with all stakeholders to make it happen.
State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald
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