Whitman-Walker Health - History - 2000s

2000s

Cornelius Baker, an HIV-positive civil rights and HIV activist, is selected as executive director in January 2000.

The Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center is renovated to place nearly all client services under one roof. This consolidation eliminates the need for clients to walk from one building to another several blocks away.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson receives an HIV test at the Max Robinson Center as part of a campaign to encourage African-Americans to get tested.

Whitman-Walker plays a fundamental role in organizing the National Coalition for LGBT Health along with 50 other local, state and national organizations. A. Cornelius Baker is named one of the first co-chairs of the coalition.

As the HIV/AIDS epidemic entered the 21st Century, Whitman-Walker was faced with a changing epidemic and difficult decisions. With improved medical treatment, HIV/AIDS patients began to live longer and require more services for longer periods of time. This change put an additional financial strain on the Clinic as it continued to provide services for a growing number of patients.

At the same time, funding problems began to beset the Clinic. Funding for the federal Ryan White CARE Act was frozen at 2001 levels for several years. Major fundraising events, such as the AIDS Ride (which went bankrupt) and the AIDS Walk (which saw much reduced attendance in 2000 and 2001), were not successful. ),

In 2003, the Clinic begins to offer the OraQuick rapid oral HIV test that gives results in 20 minutes. WWC also institutes a sliding fee scale to allow those who could afford to contribute to their care to do so.

2004 brings both good and bad news for Whitman-Walker. The CDC and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield help the Clinic observe World AIDS Day by providing funds for two new mobile HIV testing units. However, financial problems lead to the closing of the Schwartz Housing Program and the transition of all housing clients to other providers.

Cornelius Baker resigned as executive director of Whitman-Walker Clinic in December 2004, telling the Washington Blade that the Clinic's financial difficulties had negatively impacted his health and citing other personal reasons for leaving.

The search for Baker's replacement was a lengthy one. During the search process, Whitman-Walker continued to face financial challenges but continues to serve the community.

Whitman-Walker Clinic opens medical and support services for the transgender community. Services include gynecological exams, STD screening, chest and breast exams and self-exam instruction, hormone therapy and mental health services.

In May 2005, Whitman-Walker faced its biggest financial problem when it was unable to make payroll for the first time in its history. This cash crunch was brought on by the ongoing freeze in Ryan White funding levels, reduced donations through special events and late payments from the DC government for services rendered.

At the same time, the Clinic discovered that it had mistakenly overcharged funders for laboratory expenses. After an internal investigation confirms the error, WWC immediately stops billing for these services and notifies all pertinent funders. This change further impacts revenue.

In early June, the Clinic announces that financial difficulties will force it to close several programs, including the FoodBank and the Clinic’s sites in Virginia and Maryland. Almost immediately, small donors, local governments and corporate partners offer financial support. The District of Columbia, spurred by Councilman David Catania, provides a one-time grant of $3.2 million. Governments in Virginia pledge $800,000 to keep Whitman-Walker of Northern Virginia open through December 2006.

These funds enable the Clinic to keep open the FoodBank and its residential addictions programs. However, Whitman-Walker Clinic of Suburban Maryland closes on Sept. 30.

In late 2005, the Clinic’s Board of Directors adopted a raft of changes to ensure the future viability of WWC. Those changes included:

• Making Whitman-Walker a community health center that would provide health care to the entire community, regardless of HIV status, sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Adopting a new business model to reduce dependence on government funding and private donations that expands primary medical care services and bring in more clients with private insurance, Medicaid or Medicare. The new model also streamlines the access process for new clients and provides services at more convenient times for clients.
• Reducing the size of the Board by half and requiring that a majority of Board members be patients of the Clinic.

The expansion of services began in early 2006 and included a greater push to have the Clinic be able to accept more private and public insurance plans. The Clinic also created a Public Benefits unit to screen new and existing patients for insurance and to enroll them in public assistance programs for which they qualify, such as Medicare, Medicaid and DC Healthcare Alliance.

On March 13, 2006, the Whitman-Walker Clinic Board of Directors announced it was hiring Donald Blanchon to take over as chief executive officer on May 1. Blanchon was formerly chief executive officer of Maryland Physicians Care (a managed care health plan in Maryland) and vice president for Medicaid and Medicare programs at Schaller Anderson (a medical management firm). Blanchon quickly announced his support for the Board's turnaround plan.

A week later, Whitman-Walker Clinic announced it would sell its two properties on 14th Street and the Max Robinson Center in Anacostia and seek to build new, larger medical treatment facilities in the two respective areas by 2009. However, these plans were ultimately shelved due to the downturn in the real estate market in the area.

In 2007, the Washington Free Clinic closed its doors due to financial problems. The staff of the Free Clinic was hired by Whitman-Walker, allowing the Clinic to further expand the medical services it offers.

Over the next three years, the Clinic would continue to expand its services for the community, including adding gynecological services, Hepatitis A and B specialty care, medical adherence services, and additional providers to see more patients.

Whitman-Walker was given a “Federally Qualified Health Center Look-Alike” designation in March 2007 by the Bureau of Primary Health Care, part of the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. The designation is only awarded to clinics that provide care to medically underserved communities and meet other stringent requirements. The benefits of this status include a higher Medicaid reimbursement rate.

On January 11, 2008, Blanchon said the Clinic had almost completed its transformation into a primary care medical organization. WWC hired Dr. Raymond Martins, assistant clinical professor of medicine at the Georgetown University School of Medicine as its new chief medical officer, purchased and installed a state-of-the-art computerized patient record-keeping system, and outsourced its financial management department. Although Whitman-Walker also laid off an unspecified number of employees due to the outsourcing, Blanchon said the Clinic was still the area's largest provider of HIV/AIDS education, prevention and treatment.

The Clinic also began consideration of plans to improve and upgrade the Clinic’s facilities.

In June 2008, the Clinic sold its long-time headquarters at 1407 S Street NW to The JBG Cos. for $8 million and moved its administrative staff into the Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center on 14th Street NW. The Clinic used the proceeds to pay off $5 million in debts stemming from mortgages on its existing buildings.

The 2008 AIDS Walk was the Clinic's most successful in several years, raising $700,000. By year's end, the Clinic had served about 10,000 patients, of whom 3,400 were HIV-positive.

Nonetheless, WWC continued to face financial challenges. The global economic downturn in the fall of 2008 had a tremendous impact on revenue: Government reimbursements for medical care had not kept pace with inflation, promised funding from some sources was not delivered, donations had dropped by 29 percent, sales of medical services had decreased, and the number of patients without insurance had risen. WWC was forced to close Whitman-Walker Clinic of Northern Virginia and its BridgeBack residential addiction treatment center, and laid off 45 employees. WWC also outsourced its pharmacy operations to Maxor National Pharmacy Services Corporation (a privately held, for-profit pharmacy management company based in Amarillo, Texas). The Clinic was also forced to close its mental health telephone hotline when city funding for the program was eliminated.

Whitman-Walker Clinic's continuing financial difficulties led to a very public dispute with D.C. Councilman David Catania, Chair of Council’s Committee on Health. The Councilmember criticized Blanchon and the Clinic's senior staff at a Committee on Health roundtable in January 2009. He specifically accused WWC of closing facilities in Maryland and Virginia without seeking financial assistance from public health authorities. He also questioned why WWC would reduce staff at Max Robinson Center when that part of the city is suffering hardest from the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Catania also accused the Clinic of an anti-gay bias and of abandoning its ties to the city's GLBTQ community.

The WWC Board of Directors requested that the law firm of Arnold & Porter and contractor Huron Consulting Group conduct an audit to review Catania's charges. Although the audit determined that Catania's charges were inaccurate, Catania accused Arnold & Porter of a conflict of interest because James J. Sandman, chairman of Whitman-Walker's board, was formerly employed by the firm. Blanchon strongly denied all the accusations.

The D.C. Council Committee on Health, which Catania chairs, held a continuation of the first roundtable on April 27, 2009. On March 24 and April 20, Whitman-Walker turned over 2,000 documents to Catania for additional review. Council member Jim Graham, who led the clinic from 1984 to 1999, supported the decision to hold hearings. Sandman, now chief counsel for the D.C. public school system, resigned to avoid a conflict of interest. June Crenshaw was elected Board Chair to replace him.

Although contentious, the April 2009 roundtable marked an end to the dispute between the Clinic and the Councilmember. Since then, the Clinic and the Councilmember have continued to work together to ensure that the residents of DC continue to receive high quality care.

After a decade of financial struggle, Whitman-Walker Clinic began to see a turnaround in the second half of 2009. By the end of the year, the Clinic’s $4 million loss in both 2007 and 2008 had been reduced more than 80 percent to a $650,000 loss.

The turnaround was attributed to several factors:

• A nearly tripling of revenue from third party funding such as private and public insurance.
• Increased revenue from the Clinic’s onsite pharmacy, approaching $500,000 a month by year’s end.
• An increase in patients coming to the Clinic for care who had insurance or were eligible to receive public benefits.
• The 2009 AIDS Walk raised $100,000 more than expected.
• The difficult decisions made to cut programming that was not financially sustainable.

The creations of stable sources of revenue allowed the Clinic to decrease its dependency on government funding and private contributions, making it less vulnerable to economic downturns.

At the same time, Clinic services have continued to expand. Between 2006 and 2010, the Clinic more than doubled the number of health care providers on staff, including specialists in gynecology, Hepatitis and psychiatry.