WASHINGTON — A private equity-owned company that handles payroll for Medicaid home care programs left caregivers unpaid and patients without services in several states, including New Jersey, according to a report released Nov. 10 by two financial watchdog groups.
The report, from Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund and the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, examines Public Partnerships LLC, known as PPL. The groups describe the company as the nation’s largest provider of fiscal intermediary services for self-directed care programs, handling registration, payroll, timekeeping and benefits for programs serving more than 700,000 Medicaid participants and caregivers across 18 states.
In New Jersey, the report said, Disability Rights New Jersey received more than 115 complaints during PPL’s first year running two state programs. The complaints involved missing or inconsistent payments, enrollment delays and unresponsive customer service, the groups said, and some workers quit after going unpaid, leaving Medicaid participants without essential services.
The groups said PPL has lost contracts or had them terminated in New Jersey, Washington, West Virginia and Tennessee. In Pennsylvania, according to the report, thousands of caregivers were not paid promptly, roughly one-third of participants failed to make the transition to PPL and lost access to self-directed services, and a state audit found the switch produced nearly $7 million in added costs in one year instead of the expected savings.
The report comes as a federal court considers final approval of a $162 million settlement PPL agreed to with nearly 200,000 New York home care workers, the groups said. New York awarded PPL a five-year contract worth about $1 billion in October 2024 to serve as the sole intermediary for the state’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, according to the report.
PPL is owned by the private equity firms DW Healthcare Partners and Linden Capital Partners, the groups said. The report also said the company faces wage-theft cases involving workers in five states.
“PPL’s record should be a warning as private equity expands into the companies that states rely on to administer Medicaid,” said Ryan Leitner, senior healthcare research coordinator at the Private Equity Stakeholder Project. He said private equity ownership “adds pressure to generate returns from public programs.”
Hibba Meraay, a research analyst at Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, said “workers and clients both suffer” when private equity targets home care programs. “We need accountability over these Medicaid middlemen who are siphoning resources out of our care systems,” she said.
The groups urged states to set enforceable quality standards for fiscal intermediaries, require regular public reporting on their finances and performance, preserve participant choice and adopt guardrails against profiteering from Medicaid funds. They also called for expanded unionization among home care workers.
The release did not include a response from PPL.
This report is based on information from Americans for Financial Reform and the Private Equity Stakeholder Project.
Source: Americans for Financial Reform
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