New Yorkers with zero healthcare experience are allowed to care for their elderly or disabled relatives and friends — potentially earning more than $43,000 a year — under a $6 billion Medicaid program that’s been rife for fraud, abuse and overuse for years, insiders say.
The Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, known as CDPAP, exploded several years back when state lawmakers loosened rules to make more people eligible for the government cash.
Critics argue that CDPAP, which has received huge funding injections from the state government, has been allowed to expand rapidly with little oversight — despite rampant signs of dysfunction and being a waste of taxpayer money.
“The program is growing many times faster than the size of the elderly population and shows no sign of slowing down,” Bill Hammond, a senior fellow for health policy at the Empire Center, an Albany-based government watchdog group, told The Post.
“It’s long past time for state officials to bring the program under control — while taking care to protect services for those who need them most.”
There are currently 250,000 New Yorkers enrolled in CDPAP across the state, the latest Medicaid enrollment report data show — up considerably from 140,000 in 2015.
Source: How NY’s $6 billion CDPAP Medicaid program has been abused, overused for years / New York Post