- New York AG Letitia James announced an agreement with Marks Homecare Agency Inc. and one of the company’s agents (together, “Marks Homecare”) regarding an allegedly anticompetitive agreement with a competitor in the homecare industry in violation of New York’s General Business Law and Executive Law.
- Marks Homecare served as a fiscal intermediary under New York’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP), which allows patients requiring long-term care to hire friends or family members as their caregivers. According to the Assurance of Discontinuance (AOD), Marks Homecare and another CDPAP fiscal intermediary made an unlawful agreement that neither company would take each other’s existing patients and would reject requested transfers, allegedly preventing patients from potentially receiving better services and caregivers from seeking a higher hourly wage with a different fiscal intermediary. Marks Homecare also allegedly attempted but failed to enter a similar agreement with a third fiscal intermediary.
- Under the terms of the AOD, Marks Homecare is prohibited from exchanging competitively sensitive information with competitors, including information about wages or benefits paid to caregivers; must administer an antitrust compliance program and provide reports to the OAG; and must pay a $550,000 penalty, among other things.