Today, we present the first-ever Disabilities Beat live event where your questions will be answered by the president of Public Partnerships LLC, the new single statewide fiscal intermediary for the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, or CDPAP.
We ultimately received over 40 questions from New Yorkers. While we couldn't ask or share every question today on the segment, we wanted to share four testimonies people sent us that stood out but didn't make it into the final show.
Some of these questions are addressed in the interview, but we wanted to make sure that we shared as many of your stories as possible. A few BTPM employees read these testimonies, and some sentences were removed only for length and clarity.
TRANSCRIPT
This transcript was created using software and updated by a human, and may be updated over time to be more accurate.
Emyle Watkins: Hi, I'm Emyle Watkins and this is the Disabilities Beat.
Today, we present the first ever Disabilities Beat live event where your questions will be answered by the president of Public Partnerships LLC, the new single statewide fiscal intermediary for the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, or CDPAP. As a reminder, CDPAP allows people with disabilities to hire, train and self-direct personal assistants who are paid using Medicaid dollars through a fiscal intermediary, or FI.
PPL was chosen by the state as the new single FI last year and began transitioning consumers in January. The transition was supposed to be complete by April 1, but consumers report facing many challenges and roadblocks. Those roadblocks will be addressed in this exclusive live interview, which you can listen to watch or read a transcript of on our website btpm.org, we'll also have American Sign Language interpretation.
We ultimately received over 40 questions from New Yorkers. While we couldn't ask or share every question today on the segment, I wanted to share four testimonies people sent us that stood out but didn't make it into the final show.
Some of these questions are addressed in the interview, but we wanted to make sure that we shared as many of your stories as possible. I had a few of my colleagues read these testimonies, and some sentences were removed only for length and clarity.
These are personal stories, not verified facts, but we feel it's important to understand the stress and confusion people are experiencing about this transition.
Reading for Diane: This is from Diane, age 67 in Kirkville. She's a parent, family member or friend of someone with a disability.
"We have not heard anything about the health care plan or how to sign up for it. One of my daughter's caregivers had been receiving health care, prescription, dental and vision benefits through RCI, Resource Center for Independent Living. It stopped on April 1, so she has not been insured this month, since ppl said it was offered, she was denied New York State Marketplace. This is unacceptable and irresponsible. She is going to quit if this can't be resolved quickly."
Reading for Joanne: This was sent in from Joanne, who is 73 years old and lives in Endicott, New York. She is a consumer with a disability.
"My son was registered and approved before March 28, 2025 he signs in after complaining that the system would not allow him to sign in, he is still not being paid by the PPL. PPL was advanced millions to do this, but still the nightmare continues. My question is, when will my caregiver get his pay from PPL? This was all supposed to be done without interrupted paid times. Yet here we are caregiver not getting paid what he has earned and supposed to be getting one more question, is your company able to handle the many problems developed by the transition? It does not seem to be doing too good on this matter. My advice is let go of it and turn it over to a business capable of doing better."
Reading for Mike: Mike, a consumer with a disability, wrote in to us saying, "why won't you let consumers correct and approve timesheets? Is is our duty as defined in law when we do it, it is easy and done in a minute or less. Why are people not being properly paid and have to sit there waiting on hold to complain about something consumers could have taken care of your company is supposed to be saving money, but it insists on doing everything wrong so that nothing is going right for the consumers or the workers."
Reading for a concerned New Yorker: A concerned New Yorker wrote in to us saying, "when I call PPL, the only option menu is one of identification. After I indicate I'm a personal assistant, I am placed in line with every other personal assistant, designated representative and consumer who has called at the same time. This means I could be in the same line as someone just starting to register, someone with a question about their paycheck and someone needing health insurance information. This is not an efficient phone system for serving hundreds of 1000s of people. An efficient phone system would identify that I am a personal assistant, then ask why I am calling to route me to the appropriate knowledgeable department to answer my question. However, this is not the case with PPL. With PPL, I end up with an employee who is nothing short of a glorified receptionist reading from a packet of information. This lack of knowledge will be confirmed when I put on hold so that they can ask a supervisor or put in a ticket further extending the length of our conversation. So my question is, why doesn't your phone system contain an additional option menu of departments to expedite calls?"
Emyle Watkins: The live interview takes place from noon until 1 p.m. today on our website, YouTube and Facebook, and will be followed by recording and transcript btpm.org. You've been listening to the disabilities beat from Buffalo Toronto Public Media. You can listen to the Disabilities Beat segment on demand, view a transcript and plain language description for every episode on our website btpm.org I'm Emyle Watkins, thanks for listening.
