NEW YORK — A private equity-owned company that runs payroll and enrollment for Medicaid home care programs has left caregivers unpaid and disrupted services in several states, including New Jersey, according to a report released Tuesday by two financial watchdog groups.
The report from the Private Equity Stakeholder Project and the Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund focuses on Public Partnerships LLC, known as PPL. The groups released it as a federal court considers final approval of PPL’s $162 million settlement with nearly 200,000 New York home care workers. PPL agreed in June to pay that amount to settle wage-and-hour claims, according to the groups.
PPL describes itself as the nation’s largest provider of fiscal intermediary services for self-directed care programs, which let Medicaid recipients hire their own caregivers. The groups said the company handles registration, payroll, timekeeping and benefits for programs serving more than 700,000 Medicaid participants and caregivers in 18 states. It has been owned since 2022 by DW Healthcare Partners and Linden Capital Partners, the report said.
In New Jersey, Disability Rights New Jersey received more than 115 complaints during PPL’s first year administering two state programs, according to the report. The complaints involved missing or inconsistent payments, enrollment delays and unresponsive customer service, and some workers resigned after going unpaid, the groups said.
The groups said PPL has lost contracts or had them terminated in New Jersey, Washington, West Virginia and Tennessee, and has faced wage theft cases involving workers in five states.
In Pennsylvania, thousands of caregivers were not paid promptly, roughly one-third of participants failed to transition to PPL and lost access to self-directed services, and a state audit found nearly $7 million in added costs in one year instead of expected savings, according to the report.
New York awarded PPL a five-year contract worth about $1 billion in October 2024. The company also faces a Justice Department lawsuit over alleged Medicaid fraud and a separate wage theft lawsuit from upstate New York workers, the report said.
“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 health care research coordinator at the Private Equity Stakeholder Project.
“Public dollars meant for care are lining the pockets of corporate profiteers,” said Hibba Meraay, a research analyst at the Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund.
The report calls for enforceable quality standards for fiscal intermediaries, regular public reporting on their finances and performance, preservation of participant choice, guardrails against profiteering from Medicaid funds and 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.
Source: Americans for Financial Reform
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