PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Anastasia Somoza, Former City Council Staff Member, on CDPAP and Resolution 642
1:54:26
ยท
3 min
Anastasia Somoza, a former City Council staff member, testified in support of Resolution 642, which endorses Senator Rivera's legislation to protect disabled and older New Yorkers who rely on the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP). She argued against the state's plan to transition to a single fiscal intermediary, Public Partnerships LLC (PPL), citing concerns about cost savings, administrative burden on users, and potential loss of care and worker income.
- Somoza challenged the claim that transitioning to PPL would save the state money, pointing out that PPL is already asking for advance bids and higher reimbursement rates.
- She highlighted that the transition is putting more administrative responsibility on people with disabilities, potentially causing some to switch back to traditional home health aide services at a higher cost to the state.
- Somoza emphasized the importance of choice in CDPAP and argued that Senator Rivera's proposal offers a more measured approach to necessary regulation.
Anastasia Somoza
1:54:26
Thank you Chair Schulman and it's so great to see you.
1:54:29
It's great to be back.
1:54:31
I'm here to express my urgent and enthusiastic support for resolution six forty two.
1:54:38
Thank you to the council and the health committee for recognizing the importance of Senator Rivera's legislation to protect disabled and older New Yorkers who rely on CDPAP for our services.
1:54:54
There's a lot that I can say.
1:54:57
Jose touched on it, so I'm gonna focus on one of my more important points and then submit a longer testimony.
1:55:04
But according to governor Hochul and the New York State Department of Health, one of the biggest reasons why Us CDPAP users were forced to move or are being forced, currently it's already started, to move to PPL is to quote unquote save the state money.
1:55:26
But as senator Guzara Vieira started alluding to, we've already seen that this saving of money is not actually taking place because PPL is already asking for, advance bids to meet their payroll requirements, and the transition has just begun.
1:55:48
They're also asking for higher reimbursement rates than any of the reimbursement rates that the current FIs require.
1:55:58
And for every there are also a lot of folks with disabilities and older New Yorkers who are going back to home health aid services, the typical services.
1:56:12
I imagine one the many reasons why that's happening is because the shift to PPL is going to put much more of the administrative responsibility on the person with a disability.
1:56:29
And with every 1,500 disabled or older New Yorkers that switch back to services, it's going to cost the state $4,500,000.
1:56:47
So there are already trends showing again that this is not going to save the state the money that the governor hoped it would, and instead it's putting undue onus on disabled New Yorkers, taking away our choice because that's the number one reason why a lot of us use CDPAP, so that we have choice and it's making us less safe.
1:57:24
As you heard from Jose's worker, he has to potentially choose between his family and providing Jose, who he clearly cares about, with trusted care.
1:57:41
We don't deserve to potentially go without care nor do our friends and workers deserve to go without the income that they need to support their families in order to provide a service and a system that's not broken.
1:58:02
We believe it needs to be regulated, but we believe that what governor that what senator Gustavo Rivera is proposing and what this resolution supports is a much more measured approach to the regulation that needs to occur.