New York CDPAP recipients, caregivers have more time to switch to program's new payment system
New York state is offering a one-month grace period for hundreds of thousands of elderly and disabled people and home caregivers who must register for a new payment system.
The state is cutting out 600 middlemen or fiscal intermediaries and will use only one vendor moving forward. The state health department says the change is needed to cut runaway costs.
The transition is impacting the 280,000 New Yorkers enrolled in the Medicaid-funded Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP). The program pays for home care, including sometimes family members who are caregivers.
The deadline to transition to the new payment system is March 28, but the speed of that transition has been controversial and difficult for some to navigate.
The state is now offering a one-month grace period.
"We're just floundering"
Gina Centauro's sister, who is deaf and developmentally disabled, is enrolled in CDPAP. Centauro says it's been hard enough for her to register for the new system, let alone explain it to her sister's caregiver.
"It's very hard to log on. You can't even figure it out," she said. "It automatically kicks you off and tells you that you're going to receive a phone call. The phone calls never came. It's terrifying because what do I do with my sister?"
Centauro isn't even sure if her sister's caregiver is currently getting paid.
During the grace period, caregivers are told they will be paid retroactively.
"Retro pay ain't gonna help pay the bills. A lot of our staff members and ourselves, we live paycheck to paycheck," CDPAP personal assistant Vincent Centauro said.
While Jeanine Marchioli works, her mother is paid $18 an hour to care for her son, who has autism and is nonverbal. The re-registration process is not going well.
"No information sent out to people, and we're just floundering," Marchioli said.
"This transition has frankly been so mismanaged"
Experts in senior care say some kind of change is warranted.
"While it's a lifesaver for some people, we have seen examples of abuse where people are collecting the funds and not being able to provide the care that's needed," said Lisa Stern, assistant vice president of senior programs with the Family and Children's Association.
But some wonder if there will be any savings.
"Because this transition has frankly been so mismanaged, many people who are receiving home care through this program ... could wind up in nursing homes and that will wind up being much more expensive for the state," said Michael Kinnucan, health policy director for the Fiscal Policy Institute.
The new vendor says it upped its staff, working seven days a week to process the high volume.
The state estimates $1 billion in savings from the change, calling it a common sense effort the preserve CDPAP services while cutting the middleman and Medicaid fraud.
