Caregivers Sue Cdpap’s Fiscal Intermediary For Wage Theft

New York’s transition to a single fiscal intermediary for its Consumer-Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) has hit another legal hurdle. Two caregivers have sued Public Partnerships LLC (PPL), the company chosen to act as CDPAP’s fiscal intermediary, alleging that the company violated the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The complaint — which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York on Wednesday — alleges that PPL has not compensated direct care home care workers Johnnie Flanagan and Laura Chapman accurately for their work. The suit seeks to recover unpaid wages and bonuses as well as damages relating to untimely payments and violations of the New York Wage Theft Prevention Act, according to legal documents.

“Our allegations represent [the] defendant’s flagrant violations and disregard of the most basic of requirements of federal and state wage and hour law,” Emina Poricanin, the plaintiff’s attorney and the founder of the New York-based Poricanin Law, told Home Health Care News in an email. “For a company that came to New York to mainly administer payroll and benefits for at least 300,000 New York workers, these wage and hour violations should not be happening.”

CDPAP is New York’s state Medicaid program that gives individuals access to home-based care. The program enables consumers to hire the caregiver of their choice.

PPL, an Alpharetta, Georgia-based financial management services company, was announced as the sole administrator of CDPAP in October. As part of this update, caregivers and consumers were required to register with PPL by April 1. This timeline has since been delayed.

Evidence submitted in the case includes a screenshot from social media showing an email bounce-back message indicating that a purported PPL email address could no longer accept messages. Other evidence includes a social media screenshot that appears to show multiple caregiver payments from PPL marked as “in process,” the oldest of which was dated from March 30 to April 5.

“In passing the single fiscal intermediary law, New York State set out to select a company that had no prior New York experience,” Poricanin told HHCN. “The law specifically called for the selection of a company with experience in states that are not New York. Yet, New York has some of the strictest labor laws in the country. For New York to put a company with no prior labor law experience in [the state] in charge of payroll and labor compliance for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers was nothing short of irresponsible to these hard-working people.”

The complaint also alleges that PPL knowingly engaged in a policy of rejecting payment for legitimate work hours, failing to pay minimum wage and not complying with timely wage payment laws.

The plaintiffs sued PPL on behalf of themselves and other caregivers in their same position, according to court documents.

The transition to a single fiscal intermediary has been mired in complications, including by a review from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), protests from home care workers, consumers and providers and other lawsuits.

On March 31, a federal judge ordered a temporary restraining order (TRO) and a preliminary injunction preventing the New York Department of Health from prohibiting other fiscal intermediaries from servicing CDPAP participants who have not yet registered with PPL.

Additionally, last week, a group of protesters rallied at PPL headquarters to demand answers after accusing the fiscal intermediary of failing to administer their paychecks.

1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, a health care union 450,000 members strong, has thrown its support behind Flanagan and Chapman’s complaint.

“Home care workers must be paid for all hours they work,” the union organization said in a statement. “Wage and hour violations are rampant in some segments of the home care industry, including among the more than 600 fiscal intermediaries that previously operated in New York. One of the goals of the transition to a single FI is to ensure that personal assistants are correctly paid and to eliminate fraud in the system. Now that the transition is underway, the state and PPL must ensure that workers are paid timely, transparently and consistent with the law.”

PPL has not responded to HHCN’s request for comment, but the organization issued a statement announcing that 155,000 CDPAP caregivers submitted timecards and were issued payment during what marks the third pay period of the transition. 

“For 25 years, PPL has worked to expand access to self-directed care and strengthen these programs for the people they serve,” PPL President Maria Perrin said in an April 25 statement. “As we mark our third statewide payroll, we remain focused on ensuring consumers continue to receive care, personal assistants are paid on time and payments follow program rules to protect the integrity and sustainability of the program.”

The post Caregivers Sue CDPAP’s Fiscal Intermediary For Wage Theft appeared first on Home Health Care News.