The chairman of the US Senate Special Committee on Aging sent a letter to the eldercare startup Papa Inc. on Thursday, pressing the company to “provide assurances that it is taking steps to ensure the safety and dignity of care workers and clients” following a Bloomberg Businessweek investigation revealing allegations of sexual assault and harassment.
(Bloomberg) — The chairman of the US Senate Special Committee on Aging sent a letter to the eldercare startup Papa Inc. on Thursday, pressing the company to “provide assurances that it is taking steps to ensure the safety and dignity of care workers and clients” following a Bloomberg Businessweek investigation revealing allegations of sexual assault and harassment.
Democratic Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania told Papa’s chief executive officer, Andrew Parker, in the letter that “the allegations of abuse by both Papa care workers and clients, as well as the lack of training and oversight to prevent and address future problems, raise deep concerns.” Papa said in a statement provided by a spokeswoman that the company is “actively working” to answer the senator’s questions and share its safety protocols with the office.
Papa offers a gig-economy version of home care. Health insurers, including Medicare and Medicaid providers, ink contracts with the company and offer its service to their members. Papa then sends contractors to the homes of elderly people to assist with household chores and transportation or to simply provide companionship.
In May, Businessweek published an investigation based on more than 1,200 confidential complaint reports received by Papa, detailing a range of incidents, from sexual assault and harassment to theft and unsafe environments.
“Recent reporting by Bloomberg raises serious concerns about the adequacy of Papa’s vetting process. . . . Given these clear and repeated lapses, Papa’s response disputing Bloomberg’s reporting that the company’s safeguards are lax is alarming,” Casey wrote. “I have an interest in ensuring that older adults and people with disabilities are receiving high-quality care, are free from fraud and abuse, and that federal health programs are receiving good value for taxpayer dollars.”
Papa on Thursday announced new trust and safety measures, including that it would make more of its voluntary training options mandatory, and said it would begin anonymizing phone numbers to prevent harassment between its workers and elderly clients — a longstanding issue since at least 2019.
Casey asked the company to share records of every complaint it has received in 2023 from both its clients and workers, and aggregate data about incidents over the last three years. He also asked Papa to share how much of its revenue comes from Medicare, Medicare Advantage and Medicaid payments.
(Updates with company’s response in second paragraph.)
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