For a third time the state Health Department has postponed releasing records related to a disputed $1 billion Medicaid contract, saying it needs another six weeks or more to locate and redact the materials in question.

The latest delay means the department’s early communications with Public Partnerships Limited – which later won a statewide contract to operate the Medicaid’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program – will remain unavailable to the public until Feb. 20 or beyond.

The records are expected to shed further light on why the state abruptly decided to consolidate the $11.9 billion program under a single statewide “fiscal intermediary” – and how PPL was chosen to handle that lucrative job.

The Empire Center requested the records on Sept. 8, shortly after the state Senate held a hearing on the much-disputed contract – including allegations that the department had effectively picked the winner in advance.

At the hearing, PPL official Patty Byrnes testified that there had been “no conversations” with state officials before bidding on the contract opened in July 2024. In a follow-up letter, however, the Byrnes acknowledged the company had communicated with the Health Department in March and April of that year, which was before the Legislature authorized the bidding process as part of the annual state budget.

To obtain copies of those communications, the Empire Center submitted requests under the Freedom of Information Law with both the Health Department and the governor’s office.

Similar documents are also being sought by the Sens. James Skoufis and Gustavo Rivera, the organizers of the hearing last summer.

In December, the governor’s office responded to the Empire Center’s request by releasing a single email record – an April 4 invitation to an on-line meeting involving advisers to Governor Hochul as well as officials of the Health Department and PPL.

For its part, the Health Department initially said it could produce the records no sooner than Oct. 7. It has since pushed back that date to Nov. 21, Jan. 6 and, most recently, to Feb. 20 – which would be almost six months after the initial request.

The latest postponement, as with the earlier ones, leaves open the possibility of further delays:

Please be advised [the Records Access Office] is unable to respond to your request by the date previously given to you. We are working diligently to identify or redact records responsive to your request.

The Records Access Office now expects to complete its process by February 20, 2026. The Department will notify you in writing when/if the responsive materials are available for release or if the time needed to complete your request extends beyond the above date.

Please note that the office is working through a significant backlog of FOIL requests and asks for your patience.

The Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, or CDPAP, is a form of home-based care for Medicaid recipients with disabilities. Patients in the program choose their own caregivers, who can be friends or family members, and Medicaid pays their wages. It has been one of the fastest-growing parts of the Medicaid budget, covering some 280,000 people at a cost of $11 billion as of 2024.

The state formerly employed hundreds of companies known a fiscal intermediaries to handle payroll processing and other CDPAP-related duties. In the name of cutting costs, Governor Hochul and the Legislature decided last year to consolidate those administrative functions under a single contractor.

Lawmakers approved the consolidation plan along with the rest of the budget in mid-April 2024. The Health Department opened bidding in June and named PPL as the winner in September. Despite multiple lawsuits seeking to block the transition, PPL began taking over in April 2025.