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The company awarded a controversial $11 billion Medicaid contract in New York was accused of “egregious fiscal and operational failures” in other states, The Post can reveal.
Georgia-based Public Partnerships LLC (PPL) was brought in to replace hundreds of middlemen in the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) as a cost saving measure in 2024.
However, it has lost contracts in six other states after sometimes disastrous rollouts of its systems. PPL has also been accused of backdoor dealings and their no-bid contract being rigged, by those scrutinizing the New York deal.
Since PPL took over administering CDPAP — the Medicaid program that pays friends and family members to care for chronically ill or disabled individuals instead of relying on a traditional home health agency — in April 2025, consumers and caregivers have complained about missed or delayed paychecks, service interruptions, technical glitches and overwhelmed customer service lines.
Those complaints mirror other states’ experiences with the company.
In New Jersey, PPL were accused of “egregious fiscal and operational failures,” in managing two Department of Human Services programs, according to the Alliance for the Betterment of Citizens with Disabilities (ABCD), leading to an eventual move to other contractors,completed in 2025.
Complaints reported to the ABCD ranged from persistent payment delays and inaccurate payroll processing that denied life-critical services to individuals with disabilities, the nonprofit claimed, although the claims did not lead to a lawsuit. PPL didn’t respond to those allegations in a response to The Post.
The 2013 transition to PPL in Pennsylvania was described in accounts as a “disaster” that lead to a 2017 class action lawsuit. PPL won the lawsuit, but it is being appealed. However, their contract ended in 2021 and wasn’t renewed as the state adopted a different model.
A performance audit found the state “ignored many red flags that PPL was not fully prepared” to offer services and called the transition “problematic.”
PPL had contracts to manage similar home care programs in Washington, West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee which have since been terminated or lost.
In a statement to The Post, a PPL spokesperson said, “PPL has never lost a contract in any state due to poor performance. We maintain high satisfaction rates.
“PPL operates with close program oversight, reduces administrative burden and costs, and prevents wasteful and fraudulent practices in each state we serve.”
The company said Pennsylvania switched to a different model, and they made a “business decision” to exit the market in Washington. They were outbid by other suppliers in NJ, Tenn. and WV. PPL didn’t address their work in Virginia.
Meanwhile, in New York, PPL did not disclose it was partially owned by another company — Public Consulting Group — which already had over $630 million in New York State Health Department contracts, mostly for Medicaid consulting services, The Post can reveal.
“Providers have been warning for years that CDPAP needed guardrails. Instead, when the program became seen as a massive revenue stream, the state effectively handed it to the highest bidder, one that is closely connected to the consulting firm that has been writing policy for the Department of Health,” Julian Hagmann, a healthcare executive and outspoken critic who is suing PPL, told The Post.
Hagmann is CEO of Caring Professionals Inc., one of the “fiscal intermediaries” who previously arranged home care in New York but have been cut out by PPL.
His lawsuit calls PPL a “state sanctioned monopoly,” and claims Caring Professionals have been unlawfully asked to give over private patient information, which would violate HIPAA laws.
“The contract award to PPL was rife with conflicts of interest due to the multiple PPL-related entities and services that are provided by those entities to DOH.
“PPL’s horrendous history of operating Medicaid programs in other states should have disqualified PPL from the award,” Hagmann testified before the New York State Senate in August.
Massachusetts-based Public Consulting Group (PCG), which owns 26% of PPL, has at least 250 embedded employees at New York’s Department of Health (DOH), many working in Medicaid policy.
But in PPL’s Request For Proposal (RFP) — a formal, competitive solicitation submitted to New York State in summer 2024 — the company did not disclose PCG owned 16.1% of the company, with PCG executives holding an additional 9.9%, totaling 26% effective ownership. Hagmann claims this is a clear conflict of interest.
PCG recently sold off 74% of its stake in PPL to two private equity firms, Utah-based DW Healthcare Partners and Chicago’s Linden Capital Partners.
PPL say they complied with all required disclosures when making their bid.
A spokesperson said, “PPL disclosed all ownership interests as required by the applicable Vendor Responsibility Questionnaire. As a small shareholder, Public Consulting Group was not required to be disclosed.”
According to financial records obtained exclusively by The Post, DW Healthcare purchased its stake of PPL for $184 million in 2022 with millions in “goodwill,” indicating the company was losing money at that time.
PPL reported huge losses — $57 million in 2023 and $39 million in 2024, the records show, making DW’s decision to invest puzzling.
“Those private equity guys don’t buy anything that isn’t on a balance sheet.” Hagmann noted.
Uncovered emails showed PPL had private communications with New York DOH officials before the official bidding began and, in one telling move, an apparent draft April 2024 New York budget bill explicitly named PPL for a contract — despite bidding not having even begun.
Sources exclusively told The Post last week the US Department of Justice is gearing up to slap Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration with a civil suit over the handling of CDPAP and giving the $11 billion contract to PPL.
An analysis by The Post found PCG holds over $630 million in current and former contracts with the New York State Department of Health, with an additional $275 million in contracts from other New York State agencies — almost a billion dollars, before its affiliate PPL got the $11 billion home care deal.
Amir Bassiri — then a senior official at the New York DOH overseeing the Medicaid home care transition — submitted a sworn statement in a 2024 court case acknowledging that roughly 250 PCG employees — through their staffing affiliate company called SSO — worked in the DOH’s Medicaid program including about 50 staff “closely intertwined” with home care, which looks after CDPAP.
These staff are in operational and policy capacities within DOH’s long-term care and Medicaid divisions, handling tasks like program management, policy development, and implementation related to Medicaid reforms, including those affecting CDPAP, according to recent testimony before the state Senate.
PCG did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
The Post previously uncovered how New York lost at least $1.2 billion to scammers and middlemen through the CDPAP program, before PPL’s involvement. New York officials claim the PPL takeover has saved the state $2 billion.
After an estimated $9 billion in Medicaid money was stolen by fraudsters in Minnesota, attention has shifted to New York — where Medicaid spending is set to top $126 billion in 2026, the most costly Medicaid program in the nation. New York spends vastly more than Texas or Florida, at $51 billion and $35 billion respectively, despite both states having larger populations.
On March 3, The Post learned that federal Medicaid czar Dr. Mehmet Oz is launching a probe into New York’s Medicaid program, which he has claimed is rife with waste, fraud and abuse.
“New York’s average Medicaid spending per resident was the highest in the country — nearly 80% higher than the national average.
“These elevated costs reflect a combination of more New Yorkers enrolled in Medicaid relative to the state’s population, potential fraud, expansive benefit structures, and excessive provider payment levels within New York’s program compared with most other states,” Oz, Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, wrote in a letter to Hochul.
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