{"id":11219,"date":"2025-10-21T21:04:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T21:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/11219\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T21:04:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T21:04:13","slug":"ny-lawmakers-claim-hochul-is-targeting-them-for-ongoing-probe-into-alleged-11b-medicaid-program-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/11219\/","title":{"rendered":"NY lawmakers claim Hochul is targeting them for ongoing probe into alleged $11B Medicaid program scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALBANY \u2013 State lawmakers are accusing Gov. Kathy Hochul<\/a> of retaliating against them for continuing a probe into mounting claims her administration rigged the contract for a massive $11 billion Medicaid homecare program.<\/a><\/p>\n

State Sens. Jim Skoufis<\/a> (D-Orange) and Gustavo Rivera (D-Bronx) plan to send a letter Tuesday demanding Hochul\u2019s administration turn over evidence surrounding bid rigging and other allegations centering on her overhaul of the $11 billion per year Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the lawmakers were finalizing plans to move the investigation forward last week, Hochul took the unusual step of vetoing several of Skoufis\u2019 bills, including one that would reimburse pharmacies for consulting patients on abortion procedures.<\/p>\n

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul speaking at a press conference. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Hudson Valley lawmaker, who shocked many with his full-throated attacks on Hochul during this year\u2019s budget votes, accused the Democratic governor of vetoing his bills as payback for pushing the probe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Governor wanted me to suppress critical information related to the CDPAP investigation, plain and simple. Kathy Hochul is barking up the wrong tree if she\u2019s looking for a hack to shamelessly cover for her administration,\u201d Skoufis said.<\/p>\n

A state Senate hearing in August featuring the state Department of Health<\/a> and Public Partnerships, LLC, \u2014 the firm tapped to largely manage the CDPAP program \u2014 provided more evidence that Hochul\u2019s administration wanted to steer oversight to the company.<\/p>\n

Skoufis co-chaired the hearing with Rivera.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the unsatisfactory testimonies presented by the Department of Health and Public Partnerships LLC \u2026 as well as questionable supplemental testimony, we have issued document and information requests to both DOH Commissioner James McDonald and PPL CEO Miki Kapoor,\u201d a joint statement from Skoufis and Rivera read.<\/p>\n

A state Senate hearing in August featuring the state Department of Health and Public Partnerships, LLC, \u2014 the firm tapped to largely manage the CDPAP program. interstid \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

NY state Senator James Skoufis (pictured), along with fellow lawmaker Gustavo Rivera, plan to send Hochul\u2019s admin a letter Tuesday demanding evidence. Vaughn Golden\/NY Post<\/p>\n

The senators are requesting communications between PPL and DOH, reports of fraud, information about workers and enrollees in the program, and evidence about the \u201cfinancial foundations of the transition\u201d process to the new firm \u2014 with the bulk of the investigation focusing on the bid-rigging allegations, they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hearing was the start of our review \u2026 to pursue answers until the Senate has a thorough understanding of the actions that preceded the transition, how the program currently serves clients and employees, and if the program is achieving the promised savings,\u201d the statement continues.<\/p>\n

DOH and PPL are being asked to turn over the documents voluntarily, but the committee behind the investigation retains subpoena power.<\/p>\n

\u201cState Senators Rivera and Skoufis are weirdly obsessed with attacking the Governor for her effective work to rescue CDPAP from a fiscal crisis, protect home care for the people who rely on it, and save hundreds of millions of dollars per year for taxpayers,\u201d Hochul spokesperson Sam Spokony wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n

The lawmakers\u2019 probe has already forced Public Partnerships, LLC, to admit one of its reps lied under oath<\/a> when she said the firm hadn\u2019t communicated with Hochul\u2019s administration prior to bidding on the CDPAP contract.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Health Commissioner Jim McDonald has maintained that the contract awarded to Public Partnerships, LLC, was done so legally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBANY \u2013 State lawmakers are accusing Gov. Kathy Hochul of retaliating against them for continuing a probe into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6851,426,7050,57,9,11,10,49,51,50,9068,87,855,58],"class_list":["post-11219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-health-insurance","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-medicaid","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-pharmacy","tag-politics","tag-senate","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}