The Empire Center’s Bill Hammond today submitted written testimony for a congressional hearing on healthcare fraud.
Hammond’s testimony to the Joint Economic Committee focuses on evidence of overuse and waste in New York’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, or CDPAP.
The program was the focus of a Medicaid fraud lawsuit filed last week by the U.S. Justice Department. Defendants in the suit included the state health commissioner, Dr. James McDonald, the Medicaid director, Amir Bassiri, and Public Partnerships LLC, which won a five-year, $1 billion contract to manage CDPAP.
“CDPAP plays an invaluable role in the lives of many disabled New Yorkers, but it has also fallen prey to widespread waste, abuse and fraud,” Hammond wrote. “With better management and oversight – both in Albany and Washington – it should be possible to protect taxpayers while continuing to provide this crucial service.”
The full text of Hammond’s testimony is available here.
The Empire Center, based in Albany, is an independent, not-for-profit, non-partisan think tank dedicated to promoting policies that can make New York a better place to live, work and raise a family.
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