URGENT MESSAGE ABOUT CDPAP - PLEASE SHARE
New York is moving aggressively to put in place the Single Statewide Fiscal Intermediary by October 1.
What do these changes mean for you?
As a consumer, you will see widespread chaos, interruptions in services, failure to deliver paychecks, and the subsequent loss of PAs. For some of us, this will mean being placed in nursing homes. Being placed in a nursing facility can mean the loss of everything you have, everything that you have accomplished, and in some instances, death.
The governor states that this is not her intent; however, intent is irrelevant. Experience from other states shows it will be true.Â
Right now, we have choices. If one agency’s pay and benefit structure doesn't work for you and doesn't give you the ability to hire and retain PAs, you can go to a different company that does. That will no longer be the case. The single statewide FI was put in place to save money by cutting our services, and the only way they're going to achieve that is by lowering wages to the state minimum wage, cutting PTO, and not allowing PAs to do overtime.
Now, ask yourself or your PA if they will work for you for less than what they earn now. If the answer is no, we need you to stop this from happening.
Governor Kathy Hochul, Senate Speaker Carl Heastie, and Assembly Speaker Andrea Stewart-Cousins have decided to award one out-of-state corporation the responsibility of administering the entire CDPAP program for 250,000 consumers and even more personal assistants (PAs), creating a monopoly. This corporation is required to be a non-New York-based company, meaning the 600 New York companies currently providing CDPAP services will no longer exist.
If you think you're safe because you are a consumer of an Independent Living Center or a nonprofit that is an FI, you are not.
The single statewide FI will control all aspects of our care. We don’t need to guess how that will work, we have ConEd and Ticketmaster to show us how effective monopolies are at answering customer concerns.
The good news is - we have been working behind the scenes to build a comprehensive and bold plan to fight this proposal - and our research shows that average New Yorkers are on our side!
We began rolling out our plan today. You may have already seen our advertisement, saying Don't Let Big Business Hijack Our Home Care. This ad is part of an effort that is being supported across the sector to push back against this effort, and the message is clear.
We must act NOW to stop New York State from devastating CDPA
What can you do today?
1. Visit www.protecthomecare.org and contact your elected officials. This is a grave mistake that will force New Yorkers into nursing homes or worse - but together, we can stop it from happening.
2. Amplify our message on social media. We have a social media playbook that includes a range of messages. Please post these on your social media accounts, share them with others to post, and amplify posts from friends, colleagues, and others like CDANY by liking and sharing those. The social media formulas all work off engagement, so the more we engage with the content the better we are.
3. Share your story of how this will impact you. We are looking to hear from everyone who will be impacted. Click here to share your story.