Budget creates panel to advise on CDPAP overhaul

April 10, 2019

The state has inserted some flexibility in its plan to consolidate hundreds of non-profits that route Medicaid payments to caretakers of more 70,000 elderly and disabled New Yorkers.

As initially proposed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s administration, the enacted 2020 state budget will cut $75 million from the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program. But new language ensures that “fiscal intermediaries” that registered with the state before 2012 will continue to process payments, while hundreds of other programs will have an avenue to re-register or transfer their consumers to another organization.

Health law attorney and lobbyist Mark Ustin noted that the governor and Legislature are increasingly relying on blue-ribbon panels to make recommendations on difficult issues. If done right, the working groups can help ensure stakeholders buy in.

If done wrong, it may be “kicking the can down the road to a time when it won’t be any easier to make the hard decisions,” Ustin said.

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