Hochul Abandons Home Care & Independent Living
by Jennifer Watson
Each spring, New York’s budget process begins with the Governor introducing the Executive Budget, which serves as the starting point for negotiations with the two houses of the State Legislature.
Although the Governor’s 2026 budget includes substantial new health care investments, those resources are very disproportionately directed toward institutional settings rather than the home- and community-based services that support people with disabilities and older adults to live independently. This funding imbalance contradicts decades of policy progress and the clear goal of promoting independent living and community integration..
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Restore access to the Nursing Home Transition and Diversion (NHTD) Medicaid Waiver
By Laura Hulbert
The Nursing Home Transition and Diversion (NHTD) Medicaid Waiver program was established in 2007, developed by the disability community to assist Medicaid-eligible adults and seniors with disabilities by providing a unique and necessary set of community-based services to individuals who are currently in nursing homes or are at risk of nursing home placement, so that they might access services in the community as an alternative to institutionalization..
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What is the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program?
by Sue Hoyt
CDPAP is a Medicaid-funded program that allows people who are approved for personal care assistance to hire, train, supervise, schedule, and terminate their own Personal Assistants, including most family members, a neighbor, or a friend. CDPAP is an alternative to traditional home care. CDPAP allows personal assistants to help with housekeeping, bathing, dressing, eating, skilled nursing, and many other daily tasks..
Spring 2025
New York State’s Reckless CDPA Transition Endangers Lives
By Jennifer Watson and John McNulty
New York State continues to play politics with the lives of people with disabilities, this time through an abrupt and arbitrary transition to a single fiscal intermediary (FI) for the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance (CDPA) program. This reckless move threatens to disrupt care for hundreds of thousands of individuals who rely on it..
Summer 2025
In Opposition to the Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) Bill
By Jennifer Watson
STIC strongly opposes the legislation A.136/S.138, which would legalize physician-assisted suicide in New York State, and we are deeply chagrined that the Assembly and Senate have both passed the bill by narrow margins. While intended to offer compassionate options to individuals facing terminal illness, this legislation presents substantial and well-documented risks for people with disabilities and other vulnerable populations and lacks sufficient safeguards to prevent misuse and harm..
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Fall 2025
Assault on the Needy
by Jennifer Watson
The so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA) is being sold as a bold step forward, but when you peel back the rhetoric, what you find is devastating, particularly for people with disabilities, low-income families, and rural communities. Far from being beautiful, this law threatens to dismantle the very systems people rely on to survive, while shielding the wealthiest Americans from consequence..
Winter 2025-26
Sounding the Alarm
By Jennifer Watson
As we come to the end of 2024 with no concrete plan, I must continue to voice my profound concerns about New York State’s planned transition to a statewide Fiscal Intermediary (FI) for Consumer Directed Personal Assistance (CDPA) Services. Slated for April 1, 2025, this transition threatens to upend the lives of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and the stability of a system that empowers people with disabilities to lead independent lives..
