Congressman Ritchie Torres Renews Call on Fed + State Inspectors General to Conduct Independent CDPAP Investigation on Hochul Administration

On Wednesday, Congressman Ritchie Torres (NY-15) wrote to Lucy Lang, Inspector General of New York, and Christi Grimm, Inspector General of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, renewing his call from early December to “investigate alleged attempts by the Hochul Administration to put the $9 billion CDPAP program in the hands of a single out-of-state vendor with a questionable track record and to do so under false pretenses.”

The letter reads (full PDF here):

“I am writing to renew the request for an independent investigation in light of new facts that have been brought to light by official court filings. The latest revelation of apparent corruption and conflicts-of-interests within the Hochul Administration are simply too glaring to ignore.

“It has been brought to light that the Hochul Administration has handed a de facto sole-source contract— under the guise of Medicaid reform, with only the illusion of competitive bidding—to Public Partnerships LLC (PPL) while at the same time receiving consultation about Medicaid reform from Public Consulting Group (PCG), whose executives just happen to have a 25% ownership interest in PPL—all of which seems too coincidental to be a coincidence.

“PCG is a co-owner of PPL. As a Department of Health (DOH) contractor, PCG stands accused of recommending “Medicaid reforms” that financially benefits the company it co-owns. There is an urgent need to uncover the full extent of PCG’s role in the radical restructuring of the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP). Did PCG, which has 50 employees closely intertwined with DOH, recommend the transition to a single Fiscal Intermediary? Did PCG recommend the selection of an out-of-state vendor, knowing that it would favor the selection of the company it co-owns? Did PCG recommend the removal of independent oversight from the Comptroller? The public has a right to know the answers to these urgent questions that the Hochul Administration willfully refuses to answer.

“When ‘bidding’ for the contract for a $9 billion home care program, PPL defrauded the People of New York with a lie of omission, neglecting to disclose in writing conflicts of interest as required by law. PPL fundamentally failed to disclose a conflict—if it had been known at the time of decision-making—would have likely disqualified it from receiving the contract.

“Instead of acknowledging the colossal failure of public integrity here, the Hochul Administration is spending untold millions in taxpayer funds on a propaganda campaign to defend a transition that has been corruptly conceived and executed.

“PCG, which has catastrophically mismanaged the transition for Early Intervention (a scandal in its own right), has been credibly accused of putting its thumb on the scale to favor PPL, which is in danger of catastrophically mismanaging the transition for CDPAP. Layers and layers of mismanagement and malfeasance compounded by complacency and corruption has been a recurring theme in the Hochul Administration.

“Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and the only hope for disinfecting the Hochul Administration is an independent investigation by the Independent Inspector General.”