Assemblyman Joe DeStefano (R,C-Medford) today called on the governor to take immediate action to address the ongoing chaos caused by the transition of the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) to Public Partnerships LLC (PPL), stressing that he and other lawmakers held a press conference weeks ago warning that this confusion would happen — and yet, the problems continue to mount.

“Unfortunately, we are exactly where we feared we would be — and the people who rely on this program are paying the price,” said DeStefano. “We raised the alarm, we stood with caregivers and patients and yet the state chose to move forward with a flawed transition plan that has now left home health aides without paychecks and without health insurance. It's disgraceful and it must be fixed immediately.”

The popular CDPAP program, which serves over 250,000 vulnerable New Yorkers and employs over 200,000 aides, has been riddled with issues since the state handed control to PPL. Aides report late, reduced or missing paychecks, lapses in health insurance coverage and endless bureaucratic runarounds when seeking answers. Lawsuits alleging wage theft, labor violations and technical system failures have piled up, yet no real solutions have been offered.

“We didn't just predict this — we publicly warned the governor’s office and the Department of Health that this vendor could not handle the complexity of this program,” DeStefano continued. “Now the very people this program was designed to help — patients and their caregivers — are stuck in a broken system, told to fend for themselves.”

DeStefano said the situation is even more unacceptable given that the state agreed to extend registration deadlines through court orders, acknowledging the difficulties but failing to solve the root issues. He reiterated his call for the state to immediately intervene, provide direct support to affected aides and patients and reassess its relationship with PPL.

“Our home health aides deserve better. Our vulnerable neighbors and loved ones deserve better and New Yorkers deserve accountability when government decisions cause harm,” said DeStefano. “This crisis was preventable — and fixing it must be priority number one.”

For more information on this issue, refer to the Times Union article.