New York State has announced that it will replace the company providing health insurance to hundreds of thousands of home care workers next year. The current provider, Leading Edge Administrators, has been criticized for underpaying doctors, billing patients for care that should be covered, and attempting to cancel patients’ insurance without notice. The company has also been accused of pocketing money meant for low-wage workers and directing profits to a shady charity.
Leading Edge was hired by Public Partnerships LLC (PPL), a care management company, to oversee health insurance for employees of the $11 billion Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP). The program allows low-income elderly and disabled New Yorkers to hire their own in-home caregivers. However, home care workers and activists have criticized PPL’s health insurance offerings, saying that they are inadequate and expensive.
Currently, full-time home care workers are required to pay for a custom health insurance plan that doesn’t cover basics like hospital visits and primary care, even if they already have other health insurance. The plan costs $2,500 annually and has a $6,000 deductible. However, PPL has announced that it will replace Leading Edge with a new company to manage its health care plan in May.
Health policy expert Michael Kinnucan has welcomed the announcement, but says that it is only a “marginal improvement” in a “disastrous situation” created by PPL. He suggests that instead of taking a cut of workers’ salaries to pay for bottom-tier health insurance, PPL could simply give workers the money in cash.
PPL has announced a new and slightly improved health insurance plan starting January 1, which covers more services than the current plans but is more expensive at $3,000 a year. However, many home care workers, including Saba Nakhai, a health aide in Ossining, say that the new plan is still too expensive for them to consider enrolling. Activists are calling for PPL to provide better health coverage and to allow workers to opt out of paying for insurance that they don’t want.