“In 2021, [social adult daycare centers] were dying due to COVID. Someone threw them a lifeline.”
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Governor Kathy Hochul has taken in roughly $55,000 in campaign donations from social adult daycare centers (SADCs) in Flushing, Queens, an area that has been rife with fraud.
Nearly half that sum traces back to two men, Baoli Zhang and Jiemin Shang, who run several of the neighborhood’s largest daycare operations. Reporters found both men’s flagship centers empty during recent visits, according to the New York Post.
Zhang, 69, gave $10,000 personally and another $5,000 through his Bao Kang Adult Day Care. His businesses have billed Medicaid more than $32 million since 2018. Shang’s Livingwell Day Care donated $5,000 to Hochul in 2022, the same year it billed Medicaid $5.8 million. Shang’s Finest Adult Day Care also gave another $5,000 to Hochul’s campaign.
“In 2021, [social adult daycare centers] were dying due to COVID. Someone threw them a lifeline and must have said something like, ‘Take care of me, I’ll take care of you.’ They’re making more money than ever now,” an industry source told the outlet.
The Livingwell adult daycare center’s revenue jumped from $114,000 in 2018 to over $8 million by 2024, while Bao Kang’s climbed from $1.5 million to $7.22 million. Only nine of the city’s roughly 400 SADCs donated more than $5,000 to Hochul’s 2022 campaign, but those same nine billed Medicaid a combined $49 million that same year.
Neither Zhang nor Shang has been accused of wrongdoing. State Senator John Liu defended Zhang as a “longtime respected leader in the community,” while adding that suspected fraud should be investigated. Both Liu and Rep. Grace Meng have also received donations from Zhang.
A source close to the industry told The Post that local politicians rely on adult daycare centers to mobilize elderly voters in primaries. “A lot of the local politicians are using these guys,” the source said. “If you get 100 people in there and you make them vote, it’s very powerful for a primary. Every politician goes to these daycares for help.”
Hochul’s office claimed that contributions don’t affect government decisions. “Governor Hochul has taken significant action to root out waste, fraud and abuse, resulting in billions of dollars in savings for taxpayers, reforms to New York’s Medicaid program, and the criminal prosecution of fraudsters. Any facility caught breaking the law will be held accountable,” a spokesperson said.