Letter from Blaine Bryant

‘Grace Period’ Concerning

The New York Association on Independent Living has been sounding the alarm for months about the failures with the state’s rushed transition of the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program to a single fiscal intermediary, Public Partnerships LLC on April 1. Every alarm sounded has been immediately dismissed as though it wasn’t based in fact and instead replaced with a constant stream of reassurances that everything was “right on schedule.”

The recent announcement from Commissioner McDonald establishing a 30-day “late registration window” is the first public acknowledgment from the state that they have been misleading the public for months. The state’s own data, with one week remaining, revealed that only 139,000 consumers have “completed” the transition, and 170,000 workers have “started or completed” their applications. This leaves well over 100,000 consumers outside the process, at least, and over 200,000 workers.

This has obviously been known for some time, but the unfathomable stubbornness to face reality has created a crisis situation in which a complicated “solution” has been proposed, but it is not a solution for all. An extension of the deadline would have been a simple and straight-forward solution, and has been called for by this association, the Caring Majority, AARP, Medicaid Matters, the Medicaid health plans, and SEIU 1199, among others.

Instead of working to solve problems, this is the state’s latest attempt at directing the blame toward consumers and their workers for this failed transition. It does not address any of the real issues which have delayed the transition, which are PPLs and the state itself, which include—antiquated technology, lack of language access, long wait times and lack of call backs from PPL, untrained PPL staff, and inadequate public outreach, just to name a few. Further, it proceeds with shutting down all other fiscal intermediaries in the state, leaving no safety net.

The executive’s efforts remain focused on finding any means possible—including legally questionable tactics—not to delay the deadline, rather than face an honest conversation about the gaps in the process and working collaboratively with partners to address them. NYAIL is deeply concerned about the implications this strategy will have on individuals’ health and well-being, workers lives and the program overall.

Blaise Bryant
Communications Specialist,
New York Association on Independent Living