Jan 06, 2006  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO, JR.  | COMMENTS     

The Whitman-Walker Clinic is seeking to broaden its patient base from mostly people with HIV and AIDS to all gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and their families, “however they choose to define family,” Clinic officials said this week.

The Clinic has long treated non-HIV patients through its sexually transmitted disease program for gay men and its lesbian services program. But the plan announced this week calls for converting the Clinic’s operation into a primary care facility that treats patients for a wide range of ailments unrelated to AIDS.

“We are absolutely committed to treating people who need our services without regard to their ability to pay, their insurance status or their eligibility for public assistance,” said Roberta Geidner-Antoniotti, the Clinic’s interim executive director.

The plan calls for the Clinic to become less reliant on government grants and private fundraising by seeking out more patients with private medical insurance, she said.

For those without insurance, the Clinic will help them apply for Medicaid and Medicare, aiming to get reimbursement for its services by third-party insurers — either from the government or the private sector — similar to most of the nation’s primary care providers.

However, similar to its current policy for people with HIV or AIDS, Whitman-Walker will not turn away low-income people who are uninsured and who are not eligible for Medicaid or Medicare, Geidner-Antoniotti said.

The interim director said the plan, which the Clinic calls a new business model, emerged from the Clinic’s recovery from a financial crisis last year that forced it to close its facility in suburban Maryland, threatened the elimination of its Northern Virginia facility, and resulted in plans to cut programs and services.

“We believe this model will place the Clinic firmly on the road to long-term financial stability and enable us to serve a broader clientele more efficiently and effectively,” she said.
Geidner-Antoniotti said a $3.6 million financial aid package from the D.C. government and a pledge of financial support from state and county agencies in Virginia enabled the Clinic to retain its Northern Virginia facility and reverse plans for most program cuts.

“The Clinic’s financial state is quite good at the moment,” Geidner-Antoniotti said. “Our government funders have begun to reimburse us for services in a more timely manner, and we are confident that we can implement this new business model rapidly,” she said.

Kim I. Mills, director of communications and public affairs at the Clinic, said Whitman-Walker expects to have its new system of taking on clients with private health insurance up and running by July. As of this month, Mills said, the Clinic has contracts with Medicaid programs and Medicare, which is operated directly by the federal government, in D.C., Maryland and Virginia.

Mills said the Clinic also has contracts with the D.C. Alliance, a D.C. government medical insurance program for low-income people. In addition, it has contracts with two private insurers, Care First Blue Cross Blue Shield and Value Options. More private insurers are expected to sign contracts with the Clinic during the coming months, she said.

Board to shrink

The Clinic also announced that its board of directors agreed to reduce its size to improve its efficiency and better focus its operation. Clinic officials said the current board, which has had about 40 members, would be reduced to 20 at-large members.

Some critics have said the Clinic’s board was responsible in part for the financial crisis because it failed to take steps to reign in the Clinic’s spending or boost its fundraising during the years immediately before 2005, when the Clinic faced a severe cash flow crisis.

“In the past, the board was selected through a complicated mix of board elections, membership elections and ex-officio appointments based on their representing certain divisions or constituencies of the Clinic,” said board chair Billy Cox. “The new board will be composed of at-large members, with responsibility for the entire Clinic’s financial well-being and strategic direction.”

Billy Cox, chair of Whitman-Walker’s board of directors, says a smaller board will be responsible for the Clinic’s strategic direction.

The Clinic’s decision to become a primary care medical facility for gay and transgender people as well as an AIDS clinic comes at a time when other gay and AIDS clinics have made similar changes.

Franny Lerner, a spokesperson for Baltimore’s Chase Brexton Health Services, formerly called the Chase Brexton Clinic, said Chase Brexton became a primary care facility several years ago. Unlike Whitman-Walker, the Baltimore health services agency welcomes non-AIDS patients from the entire community, not just the ...