Gov. Kathy Hochul is moving forward with a plan to change how she manages the home health care program that serves about 250,000 New Yorkers, despite opposition from some lawmakers, home care companies and patient advocates.

Hochul announced this week that Georgia-based Public Partnerships LLC will take over management of its consumer-directed personal assistance program, which allows older and disabled New Yorkers to use public dollars to hire counselors — including family members or loved ones — to help them with basic tasks at home.

The home health program cost Medicaid more than $9 billion last year and is now administered by more than 600 companies across the state that handle payroll, timesheets and other administrative duties. By mid-2025, public partnerships will assume management of the program and subcontract to approximately 30 regional home care companies across the state, according to the governor’s announcement.

“Our plan will deliver a stronger consumer-directed personal assistance program and leverage diverse statewide partnerships to deliver the high-quality, personalized care New Yorkers need,” Hochul said in a statement.

The amount of the contract is not known yet.

Hochul included a plan to improve the Consumer Personal Assistance Program in this year’s state budget and argued it would improve oversight, reduce the risk of fraud or abuse and save taxpayers money.

But a coalition of home care companies and advocates known as the Alliance to Protect Home Care is lobbying to halt the plan, arguing that Hochul is ultimately seeking to reduce the number of patients it serves.

The coalition is now sharply criticizing the company it chose to administer the program, pointing out that it was the subject of a class-action lawsuit still pending in Pennsylvania over allegations of failing to pay home care workers overtime.

“Hochul is handing over New York’s home care program to a company that has been an unmitigated disaster in every state it has operated in,” said Bryan O’Malley, executive director of the Alliance to Protect Home Care.

Asked about the lawsuit against Public Partnerships, Sam Spokony, a spokesman for Hochul, noted that other home care companies already operating in New York have also been prosecuted for allegedly defrauding employees. He said shifting the responsibilities of one company to manage the Consumer-Directed Personal Assistance Program would help hold everyone accountable.

Maria Perrin, chief development officer at Public Partnerships LLC, denied that the company was involved in wage theft in Pennsylvania. She also addressed recent reports that the company had failed to renew home care contracts in some other states where it operated similar programs.

Perrin said the company continues to operate home care programs in states including New Jersey, Tennessee and Virginia. She added that it’s not a bad thing that the Public Partnership’s bid was recently outbid by a competitor in a bid for home care in West Virginia.

“It’s a competitive market,” she said. “It’s good for the state and consumers.”

Perrin also said that with Public Partnerships’ acquisition of New York’s consumer-directed personal assistance program, the company is seeking to partner with home care companies that serve diverse populations across the state.

However, some opponents are still working to block the passage. Several home care companies that could be forced out by the renovation have sued the state in an attempt to stop the plan.

State Sen. Gustavo Rivera, a Bronx Democrat, introduced a bill last month that would halt Hochul’s plan and instead seek to improve oversight of the Consumer-Directed Personal Assistance Program by creating a licensing system for hundreds of companies that act as intermediaries.

About 30 other state senators sent a letter to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in August expressing concerns that the plan would limit access to home care for consumers who value choice in the company they work with.

“You insist that this is something you will be able to do in an elegant way,” Rivera said. “I don’t believe it.”

Rivera said the selection of Public Partnerships LLC only increased his concerns about Hochula’s plan.