Judge Issues Restraining Order To Stop CDPAP Program Transfer

By Idy Perl

A judge in Livingston, NY has issued a temporary restraining order that is pausing the NY Department of Health’s efforts to consolidate the CDPAP program to just one home care agency. 

The CDPAP program is a home care program that allows family members or acquaintances to serve and get paid as an aide for an elderly or handicapped patient. Many families choose CDPAP so that they can afford to take care of elderly parents on their own and don’t need to rely on strangers. 

As of now New York has several hundred home care agencies, also known as CDPAP fiscal intermediaries, but the DOH made the decision to cut that down to just one company, officially to reduce Medicaid spending. Public Partnerships, a Georgia based agency, was chosen as the agency that will provide services to roughly 250,000 New York CDPAP patients. This will officially be in effect as of April 1st. 

The efforts to consolidate patients from various agencies to just one have been met with lots of resistance from both fiscal intermediaries as well as CDPAP patients and their family members. They worry about accessibility, patients falling through the cracks, and a multitude of other challenges that can arise. 

Several lawsuits have been filed against the DOH in attempts to stop or at least push off the transition, and today the ninth one was filed by a judge in Livingston, NY. The restraining order barres the DOH from transferring the personal assistant data and information to Public Partnerships as it violates HIPAA privacy laws. Therefore, Public Partnerships now has to figure out how they can register 250,000 patients before April 1st... without their information. 

illustration photo: Shutterstock