ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The troubled rollout of a new system to pay caregivers across New York has now exposed the personal information of some of its users.

Aleigha Bussey is from Rochester, she’s a paid caregiver through the CDPAP program for her grandmother.

“She was a good grandma to me when I was little so I like taking care of her, she’s sweet and I love her,” Bussey tells News10NBC. 

As required by the state, Bussey transitioned to the new payroll system run by Public Partnerships LLC, better known as PPL, and was one of the lucky ones who actually got paid this week. “I was clocking in and clocking out, everything seemed okay. I couldn’t reach anyone on the phone but it seemed okay,” she says.

That was, until Tuesday. “I get a phone call from somebody from Rochester who tried to log into their PPL at home with their ID and it’s all of my information,” Bussey explains.

And she means all of her personal information. “My routing and account number, my social security card, my ID, my address, my phone number, date of birth,” Bussey says. 

The woman who called her has the same last name but a different first name, a different date of birth, lives in a different zip code and takes care of a different person but somehow they were both assigned the same PPL ID number. So, they both called PPL right away.

“They told me that they were going to expedite it and a supervisor would reach out to me, that was Tuesday and here we are Friday and nothing has been done about it,” Bussey says.

Well, one thing has been done. “I tried to log into my account and now, I have all of her personal information,” she says, “It’s just wrong that the company has exposed this information and I don’t know if I’m the only one but I have her information, she has my information, who else has this happened to?”

News10NBC Investigative Reporter Jennifer Lewke ran this straight up the chain at PPL and at the Department of Health.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for PPL says, “Privacy of consumer and personal assistants’ information remains a top priority.  We have submitted this to our compliance department for immediate review and will provide direct outreach to the two individuals referenced.”  The spokeswoman did not reply to a set of follow-up questions that Lewke sent including whether the company would cover the cost of credit monitoring for impacted users and whether the problem might be more widespread.   

News10NBC has been investigating other issues with the rollout of PPL’s system in New York.  Earlier this week, the company announced it had upped its customer support staff to more than 2,000 people.  In a press release Friday, PPL said it has processed more than $120 million in payments so far and continues to processing payroll on a daily basis. 

PPL directed consumers and PAs to visit pplfirst.com/cdpap to log into their PPL@Home account to check the status of their registration, access program resources or view frequently asked questions. PPL’s customer service center is also available at 1-833-247-5346 or by email at nycdpap@pplfirst.com. 

The NYS Department of Health has also created a CDPAP Transition Hotline which will be staffed Mondays through Fridays from 9am to 5pm: 833-947-8666. CDPAP participants can also email the Department of Health CDPAP Transition Team for assistance at StatewideFI@health.ny.gov. 

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