Disabilities Beat: Personal care in New York is about to change
In New York, hundreds of organizations administer the Medicaid-funded Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program - or CDPAP. This program allows people with disabilities to hire their own personal care aids, who are paid through these organizations, which are considered fiscal intermediaries, or FIs. But in a last-minute curveball, the state included a move to a single FI in their state budget.
WBFO's Disabilities Beat Reporter Emyle Watkins spoke with Todd Vaarwerk after the budget passed last weekend. He serves as the chief policy officer at Western New York Independent Living and was in Albany as this change was negotiated. Vaarwerk is also among hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers using this program. They discuss how these changes will impact consumers like him, independent living centers like the one he works at, and how soon this change might happen.