Largest Healthcare Union Calls for Immediate & Urgent Action to Protect Vulnerable New Yorkers & Their Caregivers

With less than two weeks before New York State is scheduled to transition the state’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (“CDPAP”) from over 700 fiscal intermediaries (“FIs”) to one statewide partner, Public Partnership LLC (“PPL”), 1199SEIU continues to call for an extension of the upcoming deadline.

“The transition has been hampered by misinformation spread by certain FIs and others who are attempting to disrupt care for vulnerable consumers to serve their own financial interests. With over 100,000 workers who still need to start their registration process, there must be immediate and urgent action to mitigate disruption for consumers and the workers who care for them before April 10th, when workers on a weekly payroll would expect to be paid for hours beginning after April 1st,” said 1199SEIU President George Gresham.

The state’s largest healthcare union is urging the state to consider an executive order extending the April 1st deadline for FIs who have not been selected as facilitators to cease operations. This order could be limited to those FIs who are fully cooperating with the transition so as not to reward those who have been actively trying to disrupt consumer care. This is consistent with previous public testimony and statements made by 1199SEIU, which released detailed recommendations for a transition to a single Fiscal Intermediary in September 2024.

In a letter sent to the Department of Health and New York legislators earlier today, 1199SEIU is recommending the following actions:

Focus on the highest need consumers. The New York Department of Health, health plans and PPL should coordinate on a priority list of consumers with high needs and devote all necessary resources to reach and register those consumers and their caregivers before April 1st.

Increase the urgency of the communications. Language that is meant to reassure consumers that their eligibility for services has not changed may inadvertently be sending the message that no action is necessary. Multiple additional communications should be sent that convey urgency and the need to switch to PPL to avoid loss of pay for the worker.

Target outreach geographically. In New York City, large numbers of unreached consumers live in zip codes that are at least 25% Asian, at least 25% Latino, have a large Orthodox Jewish population or have a significant number of Russian speakers. To reach these consumers, we propose:

● Increasing paid and earned media efforts in Cantonese, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, and Yiddish.

● Engaging the elected officials from this community to ask to schedule events and connect with local community groups.

● Increasing the outreach workers with appropriate language and cultural skills available to work in those communities.

Maintain worker standards during the transition Strong worker standards help to minimize workforce turnover, and lower turnover is a key indicator for improved home care consumer outcomes. It is critical that all parties should take steps to minimize disruption due to variations in worker standards as the wages and benefits are standardized under the single FI.  Should workers choose to organize, they will be able to bargain collectively over their wages and benefits.

● Wages PPL has agreed to maintain standards for workers currently covered by collective bargaining agreements and is offering an hourly wage of $1 over the minimum required to downstate workers. To the extent that some workers are receiving higher hourly wages, those wages should be preserved during the transition period.

● Truly affordable healthcare. As a joint employer, PPL is subject to the large employer mandate under the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”).  Any enrollment in an employer-sponsored plan should be delayed for at least 90 days, as is permissible under the ACA.  That will allow for a transition period during which all parties can work together to ensure that CDPAP workers have access to high quality, truly affordable health insurance, including by reinvesting savings generated by the new system.

● Accrued Paid Time Off New York State should ensure that current FIs pay out any accrued paid time off upon separation of employment. 

1199SEIU’s complete recommendations regarding the CDPAP Transition are here.