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A Georgia-based company has gotten a state contract to take over a popular Medicaid home care program, consolidating the work currently done by more than 600 different agencies across New York.

Public Partnerships LLC, which will move its headquarters to New York, is taking over administration of the Consumer-Directed Personal Assistance Program. When health concerns from age or disability mean a person needs help to keep on living independently in their home, CDPAP lets them choose their own caregiver, often a relative or a friend, and Medicaid will pay them for their services. PPL, a private equity-backed company, will administer the state program and send out the paychecks.

Care providers worry that this centralized system won’t be as responsive to local needs across New York’s varied landscape. But critics of the current........

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