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By: LOU CHIBBARO JR. COMMENTS
 
The Whitman-Walker Clinic’s board of directors discussed plans for reducing
the size of the clinic’s workforce and cutting many of its programs this
week after a shortage of funds forced the clinic to withhold half of its employees’
paychecks.
News that the clinic had only enough cash on hand to pay half of its $475,000
payroll for May 13 came one week before clinic officials disclosed another potential
bombshell — a possible bookkeeping error caused Whitman-Walker to overcharge
the District government as much as $2 million in fees for laboratory tests over
a period of about five years.
The clinic’s discovery of the overcharging, through an audit it conducted
on its own, prompted clinic officials to stop billing the city for as much as
$75,000 per month in lab fees for AIDS-related tests until it can determine
how much it must repay the city for the over-billing, said Roberta Geidner-Antoniotti,
the clinic’s interim executive director.
Suspending its billing for the lab services for the city has compounded the
clinic’s money problems, which have resulted in the clinic’s inability
to pay some of its own creditors and vendors during the past several months.
“We will continue to suspend all non-essential spending, and will need
to delay payments to as many vendors as possible in the near-term,” Antoniotti
told the clinic’s staff in an internal e-mail message on May 5.
Antoniotti said that while declining contributions from private donors played
a role in the current financial crisis, the missed payroll was triggered by
a longer than usual delay by the D.C. HIV/AIDS Administration in reimbursing
the clinic for hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses for AIDS-related
services.
The delay in reimbursements drew sharp criticism from members of the D.C. Council
during a May 18 hearing called by Councilmember David Catania (I-At-Large),
who chairs the Council’s Committee on Health. Catania and Councilmembers
Carol Schwartz (R-At-Large), Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), and Vince Gray (D-Ward 7)
criticized HAA for failing to fix what they called a chronically dysfunctional
reimbursement system that has wreaked havoc on Whitman-Walker and more than
a dozen other non-profit groups providing services to people with AIDS.
Witnesses representing Whitman-Walker and other AIDS service groups testified
that the reimbursement problem has existed for years and that repeated appeals
for quicker payment of funds for services have gone unanswered by HAA.
Catania recessed the hearing before Department of Health Director Gregg Pane
and HAA Director Lydia Watts had a chance to testify, saying he wanted them
to return on May 20 — when he would resume the hearing — with “real
solutions” for the reimbursement problem.
Sources familiar with the clinic have said top clinic officials believe the
financial problems are so serious that the clinic’s ability to remain
open could be in doubt if drastic measures are not taken to reduce spending.
Antoniotti sought to calm fears about a possible shutdown in her May 5 e-mail.
“I understand that there is some confusion about my statement on Friday
[April 28] that the clinic could close,” she stated. “I want to
clarify that I didn’t mean for you to hear that as something that might
occur tomorrow. I meant to communicate that our survival and health as an organization
over time are dependent upon our making sound financial and operational decisions
now.”
Similar to other non-profit organizations, Antoniotti said, the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks adversely affected the clinic’s fund-raising, along
with a sluggish national economy.
But clinic board president Billy Cox said Whitman-Walker’s money problems
stem from decisions made years earlier to expand the clinic’s services
at a pace that surpassed its ability raise the money to pay for the services.
“The bottom line is the clinic got too big,” Cox said. “There
is no longer enough money to support all of these programs, which have helped
so many people in need.”
Cox said the board and staff would do all they could to preserve all of the
clinic’s programs deemed crucial to its more than 7,000 clients. One possible
option, he said, is to arrange for other local AIDS and health organizations
to take over some of the clinic’s programs, enabling the clinic to “downsize”
its operations.
In addition to its medical services to people with ...
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