Flushing becomes epicenter of New York Medicaid adult daycare surge

Sixty-four Medicaid-funded social adult daycare facilities are packed within a one-mile radius in Flushing, Queens, making the neighborhood the densest cluster of these centers in the country. New York Medicaid paid adult daycare providers $3.35 billion nationwide in 2024, and 17% of that money flowed to 375 facilities across New York state.

The spending surge has been especially sharp in New York City’s Flushing neighborhood, where Medicaid billing has far outpaced the growth in the older population. From 2018 to 2024, the number of Medicaid-eligible seniors in Flushing grew about 20%, while the number of seniors billed by its social adult daycares rose 390%. Those centers billed Medicaid for the equivalent of more than 90% of local Medicaid-eligible seniors.

Since 2021, the New York State Department of Health has referred 387 centers for investigation, with about one-third elevated to the Attorney General for law enforcement action. Social adult day care settings must meet home- and community-based services standards that include privacy, dignity, respect, autonomy, access and person-centered planning. Social Adult Day Services are designed to reduce loneliness and social isolation, improve social determinants of health, provide respite to caregivers and help working families balance jobs and care.

A separate audit by the Office of the New York State Comptroller covered January 2019 through October 2024 and found $2.4 billion in managed long-term care payments for social adult day care services. Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said the programs showed questionable Medicaid payments, safety risks and compliance problems, warning that stronger oversight is needed to protect vulnerable seniors and taxpayer dollars. Social adult day care has been a covered managed long-term care service in New York since March 2014.

On February 9, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice charged two Queens men in a $120 million Medicare and Medicaid fraud case tied to a pharmacy and two adult day care centers in Flushing. The indictment alleges cash kickbacks and supermarket gift cards were used to steer elderly recipients to services that were medically unnecessary or never provided, and that one center billed Medicaid for about 1,041 people in a single day despite a certificate of occupancy for only 81. In a separate Brooklyn case, a New York woman pleaded guilty in August 2025 to conspiring to defraud Medicaid of approximately $68 million through kickbacks and bribes at two social adult day cares.