By: Jordan Baker

State lawmakers in Albany are turning up the pressure on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration after fresh revelations suggested officials may have quietly steered a lucrative Medicaid contract worth $11 billion to a single company.

According to the New York Post, the controversy centers on the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP), which provides home care to vulnerable New Yorkers. Public Partnerships, LLC (PPL), the company selected to run the program, admitted in a recent letter to state senators that its earlier testimony under oath was false.

PPL’s vice president of government relations, Patty Byrnes, had previously denied that the firm had been in contact with the Department of Health before lawmakers rewrote the budget last year to consolidate the program under one fiscal intermediary. But in a stunning reversal, she acknowledged those statements “were not accurate,” writing that communications with DOH staff had indeed taken place.

The New York Post reported that Byrnes admitted the discussions occurred in late March and early April, even before the controversial law was finalized. The company was later awarded the massive contract to oversee payroll and payment services for home health aides across the state.

“Something here stinks,” State Sen. Steven Rhoads (R-Nassau) told the New York Post after the admission. Rhoads argued that families who depend on the program deserve to know the full scope of those conversations: “Who was involved? Did they influence the bid drafting and selection process? And if so, did anyone in the Hochul administration or her donors benefit as a result? We want answers. And so should all New Yorkers.”

Sen. Jim Skoufis (D-Orange), who chairs the Senate Investigations Committee, echoed those concerns. The New York Post reported that Skoufis, along with Health Committee Chair Gustavo Rivera (D-Bronx), had already held a public hearing last month. Skoufis said PPL’s amended testimony only raises more red flags: “All these statements, all these amendments to testimony, all of these comments now, since the hearing, only elicit more questions.”

The Hochul administration has not denied that conversations with PPL took place. A spokesperson for the governor previously insisted the shift to a single intermediary “went through a standard procurement process” and that no officials knew the outcome until the process was complete. But the New York Post noted that critics remain unconvinced, especially as patients and workers continue to face problems with delayed paychecks and chaotic transitions since the program was consolidated.

Rivera, the Bronx Democrat, said the ongoing problems are more than political. “There is still harm happening to patients and workers,” he told the New York Post, vowing that PPL would be “taken to task” for its role in the rocky rollout.

The dispute also raises questions about sworn testimony from Health Commissioner James Mc Donald. At last month’s hearing, Mc Donald insisted he was unaware of any prior contact between his agency and PPL. A spokesperson later doubled down, saying Mc Donald “was not aware” of his staff’s communications with the company, despite PPL’s letter confirming otherwise.

For now, PPL has pledged cooperation with the Senate inquiry, though Skoufis has left the door open to subpoenas. Meanwhile, the Hochul administration is facing mounting scrutiny over whether one of the state’s largest Medicaid programs was quietly tailored to favor a single firm.