Firm in alleged Hochul bid-rigging scheme was set for takeover before it even won contract

The firm at the center of bid-rigging claims involving Gov. Kathy Hochul’s overhaul of a $9 billion home care program added staff weeks before it won the contract, records show.

Public Partnerships LLC posted a job for a manager as early as August, almost two months before it was officially awarded the contract to essentially act as a middleman between Medicaid and caregivers — which critics say is proof it was already a done deal.

“The mountain of evidence keeps growing and it all points to a rigged bid for PPL,” said Bryan O’Malley, executive director of Alliance to Protect Home Care, an industry group repping the firms.

“If Governor Hochul was sincere about her promise for a ‘new era of transparency’ then she would release all communications with PPL before this backroom deal risks the health of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers,” O’Malley told The Post.

The company was seeking a so-called director of market implementation to oversee a team of employees to build out the infrastructure needed to take over payroll functions for over 200,000 CDPAP caregivers, according to the job posting, which was obtained by The Post.

“It speaks to their arrogance a little bit,” one source familiar with the bidding process said.

“This is the most messed up procurement I’ve ever seen,” the source continued, noting that they’ve never seen a firm begin hiring for such a contract before it was awarded.

The contract was not officially awarded until Sept. 30.

The posting did not include a salary range, as required by state law.

But a spokesperson for PPL said they never actually ever hired anyone — and argued job postings are a normal practice for potential large state contracts.

“We did not hire anyone for the NY CDPAP contract in advance of the contract award,” the PPL spokesperson wrote. “We sometimes try to identify candidates for large contracts we are bidding before we are awarded. This gives us a pipeline of potential staff in the event we are awarded the contract and enables us to hire more quickly upon contract award.”

The spokesperson didn’t give any examples of other job postings advertised before a contract was awarded.

As part of its contract award, PPL also committed to moving its headquarters to New York. Many current job postings on PPL’s website show the firm is seeking candidates located in Albany or New York City, although it will allow remote work.

The company’s spokesperson said employees working remotely will still be required to do so within the state.

“Our implementation is on track. We have hired several hundred people, have identified our locations in Albany and Midtown, and are on track with the remaining infrastructure,” the spokesperson wrote, noting that the firm is committed to hiring “more than 1,000 New Yorkers.”

Hochul has been facing intense criticism and questioning over her motives for the massive changes to the rapidly ballooning $9 billion Medicaid program.

One of the current firms that stands to lose business by the transition to PPL is suing the state, alleging that it rigged the bidding process.

Freedom Care, LLC alleges that PPL is struggling financially and coordinated with powerful health care union 1199SEIU to push for the CDPAP overhaul.

Bombshell reporting by The Post revealed that 1199SEIU was working behind the scenes to ensure the winning contractor would agree to let it unionize the caregivers and to jointly advocate to raise their wages – meaning hundreds of thousands of new dues-paying members.

Hochul had made reining in waste, fraud and abuse of CDPAP a priority in her state budget proposal this year. Her initial proposal would have given the state more oversight and control over the roughly 700 current fiscal intermediary firms.

Those plans were suddenly ditched during backroom budget negotiations between Hochul and state legislative leaders in lieu of the decision to consolidate the services into one hand-picked firm.

Sources told The Post PPL was a frontrunner for the contract before the ink on the state budget deal was even dry.

Since Hochul and the legislature’s decision to scrap most of the middlemen firms, those organizations have been waging war to try and unravel the changes. These include lawsuits, massive ad campaigns and demonstrations.

A spokesperson for Hochul denied the bid rigging accusations.

“Obviously, no one from the State advised bidders to start posting for jobs in August, since no State officials knew who would be selected until the procurement process was complete,” the Hochul spokesperson wrote in a statement.

“It’s also obvious that the companies spending millions to try to stop our much-needed reforms are just throwing more spaghetti at the wall to see if anything sticks,” they continued.

Last week, New York Republican members of Congress called on the feds to withhold some Medicaid funding in an effort to slow down the implementation of the changes.