Authored by Chase Smith via The Epoch Times,
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has directed the state Department of Health to consider ending the state's Medicaid social adult day care benefit.
The directive came on the same day that state and federal investigators carried out a crackdown on providers suspected of fraud, and on the same day that Hochul announced 16 arrests in a separate auto insurance fraud investigation.
Hochul, a Democrat, stated at an Oct. 20 press conference that she had told the department to look at "all options to eliminate continued fraud, waste and abuse." Those options include phasing out the benefit and moving participants to other services for older New Yorkers. The department's recommendations are due by Dec. 31.
Social adult day care is a non-medical benefit offered through New York's Medicaid managed long-term care program.
It provides daytime supervision, meals, social activities, and personal care in a community setting. More than 400 programs serve about 45,000 Medicaid members at an estimated cost of more than $500 million a year, according to the governor's office. The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approves the benefit and helps fund it.
The announcement followed what the governor's office called a months-long investigation targeting more than 100 providers. The state Department of Health, the state Office of the Medicaid Inspector General, and the state attorney general's Medicaid Fr
