NY Health Commissioner James McDonald and Medicaid Director Amir Bassiri have been accused of federal Medicaid fraud. The allegation is that the Hochul administration rigged the transition of CDPAP services for Public Partnerships, LLC. They allowed the company to siphon millions more than its contract allows.
The federal government sued Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration on Tuesday. They claim that officials rigged a bid on an $11 billion Medicaid home care program.
Politico Report
The Justice Department sued Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration Tuesday over its handling of a popular Medicaid home care program. They allowed over 200,000 New Yorkers to hire their own caregivers, court records show.
The civil lawsuit accuses state Health Commissioner James McDonald and Medicaid Director Amir Bassiri of making false or misleading statements about the consolidation of Medicaid’s consumer-directed personal assistance program, or CDPAP, under financial services company Public Partnerships LLC.
The DOJ also accused PPL of creating an “artificially attractive proposal” to administer the Medicaid program through a “sham bid process,” making false statements about its communications with state officials before winning the CDPAP contract and improperly inflating hourly billable rates upon taking over the program in 2025.
The Feds request freezing of funds.
“New York’s failure to police a favored vendor that unlawfully siphoned millions of dollars of Medicaid funding is egregious and betrays the public trust,” Brett A. Shumate, assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s Civil Division, said in a statement, reports the New York Post.
Gov. Hochul isn’t directly involved. However, the complaint does include emails between the health department and the stumbling company, PPL, that show the Democratic governor was actively involved. She was involved in the transition process and the awarding of the bid to the company.
