Local
Restructuring credited with Whitman-Walker revenue gains
Agency in the black for first time in a decade
Whitman-Walker executive director Don Blanchon (Blade file photo by Michael Key)
Whitman-Walker Clinic’s ability to operate with a positive cash flow last year for the first time in nearly 10 years – and its expectation of remaining in good financial shape for the foreseeable future – is due to its transformation from a volunteer-based AIDS service group to a full-service community health center, according to executive director Don Blanchon.
In a briefing for the Washington Blade, Blanchon displayed charts and graphs showing what he called a dramatic change in the Clinic’s sources of revenue.
At a time when other community clinics providing services to the LGBT community and other communities are facing financial hardship due to diminishing government funding and a drop in private donations, Whitman-Walker has become far less reliant on both government funds and revenue from private donors, Blanchon said.
He noted that in 2005, Whitman-Walker received 51.5 percent of its total revenue from government grants. That same year, the Clinic received 38.4 percent of its revenue from fundraising efforts seeking contributions from the public or businesses. Just 8.7 percent of its revenue came from third-party entities such as patient health insurance carriers or patients covered by Medicaid, Blanchon said.
In 2010, after the Clinic completed its transformation into a health center, 21.1 percent of its revenue came from third-party entities, with many more clients covered by private health insurance or Medicaid. He noted that 31.5 percent of the Clinic’s revenue in 2010 came from its operation of a pharmacy on its premises.
At the same time, its revenue from government grants dropped to 15.8 percent of total revenue, and revenue from private fundraising dropped to 15.8 percent of total revenue.
According to Blanchon, Whitman-Walker continues to rely on private donors and looks forward to its annual D.C. AIDS Walk fundraiser in October. But he said the new structure decreases the Clinic’s reliance on government and private donor revenue at a time when the national recession has forced government agencies and many donors to drastically cut back on giving money to charitable groups like Whitman-Walker.
As a financially stable institution, compared to its near financial collapse five years ago, the Clinic is now taking on more patients in need, especially low-income patients with HIV, Blanchon said. At the same time, it is seeing a growing number of LGBT patients who don’t have HIV but prefer to use Whitman-Walker as their primary care provider, he said.
Data that Blanchon pointed to for 2010 show that the Clinic saw about 13,000 patients that year, 22 percent of whom were HIV positive. Although the total number of HIV patients appears to be dropping, he noted that 60 percent of all medical visits to the Clinic in 2010 were HIV-related, showing that HIV remains the main area of service for the Clinic.
The 2010 data show that 49 percent of all patients self-identify as being LGBT; 69 percent were male, 29 percent female, and 3 percent transgender. In terms of ethnicity, 47 percent were black, 35 percent white, 15 percent Latino, and 3 percent falling into another category.
“We began this journey a little more than five years ago and it has not been without its hardship, sacrifice or public debate,” Blanchon said. “Through it all our board of directors, employees, volunteers, donors and public and private funders remained steadfast to our mission of caring, especially our longstanding commitment to the LGBT community and persons living with HIV/AIDS.”
Rehoboth Beach
Women’s FEST returns to Rehoboth Beach next week
Golf tournament, mini-concerts, meetups planned for silver anniversary festival
Women’s+ FEST 2026 will begin on Thursday, April 9 at CAMP Rehoboth Community Center.
The festival will celebrate a remarkable milestone in 2026: its silver anniversary. For 25 years, Women’s+ FEST has brought fun and entertainment for all those on the spectrum of the feminine spirit. There will be a variety of events including a golf tournament, mini-concerts and happy hour meetups.
For more information, visit Camp Rehoboth’s website.
District of Columbia
How new barriers to health care coverage are hitting D.C.
Federally qualified health centers bracing for influx of newly uninsured patients
Washington, D.C. has the second-lowest rate of people who lack health insurance in the country, but many residents are facing new barriers to health care due to provisions of the sweeping federal law passed in July, which threatens access for thousands.
Changes to insurance eligibility and the rising cost of premiums, which kicked in for some in October and others more recently, are expected to leave many more patients uninsured or unable to afford medical care. Federally qualified health centers, including D.C.’s Whitman-Walker Health, where 10 to 12 percent of patients are uninsured, are bracing for an influx of newly uninsured patients while facing their own financial challenges.
Even in D.C., where uninsured rates have been among the lowest in the country, changes brought on by the passage of the Republican mega bill (known as the “Big Beautiful Bill”) will have major effects.
The changes from the bill affect Medicaid, which is free to low-income patients, and subsidies for insurance that people buy on the health insurance exchanges that were started under the Affordable Care Act, which were allowed to expire on Dec. 31.
Erin Loubier, vice president for access and strategic initiatives at Whitman-Walker Health, says some Whitman-Walker Health patients have received notices about premium increases, including several who say the increases are up to 1,000 percent more than they were paying.
“That is like paying rent,” she says. “We live in an expensive city, so any increases are going to be really, really hard on people.”
Whitman-Walker Health and other healthcare providers are expecting the changes to have multiple effects — some patients may not be able to afford coverage or may avoid going to the doctor and allow health conditions to worsen because they can’t afford care, and many more will be seeking care who don’t have insurance.
“I’m worried that we’re going to not just have people who can’t get care, but that they delay care until they’re really sick, and then the care is not as effective because they might have waited too long, and then we may have a less healthy population,” Loubier says.
Loubier says delaying care, and serving more people without insurance has major implications for Whitman-Walker Health and other health centers serving the community.
“There’s going to be a lot of pressure on us to try to find and raise more money, and that’s going to be harder, because I think all organizations who provide health care are going to be facing this,” she says.
The U.S. health care system is the most expensive in the world, and has much higher out-of-pocket costs for individuals. But in other countries like the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and many others, health care is much less expensive — or even free.
Even though the U.S. has a high-priced healthcare system, critics say there are still ways to bring down costs by forcing insurance and pharmaceutical companies to absorb more of the costs, rather than transferring the costs to patients.
“In the U.S., they end up trying to cut costs at the person’s level, not at the level of the different corporations or structures that are making a lot of money in healthcare,” said Loubier. “Our system is so complicated and there is probably waste in it, but I don’t think that that cost and waste is at the ‘people’ level. I think it’s higher up at the system level, but that is much, much harder to get people to try to make cuts at that end.”
Ultimately at Whitman-Walker Health, healthcare providers and insurance navigators are planning to help with everyday necessities when it comes to healthcare coverage and striving to provide healthcare in partnership with patients, said Loubier.
“The key here is we’re going to have a lot of people who may lose insurance, and they’re going to rely on places like Whitman-Walker Health and other community health centers, so we have to figure out how we keep providing that care,” she said.
(This article was written by a student in the journalism program at Bard High School Early College DC. This work is part of a partnership between the Washington Blade Foundation and Youthcast Media Group, funded through the FY26 Community Development Grant from the Office of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.)
District of Columbia
Mayor Bowser signs bill requiring insurers to cover PrEP
‘This is a win in the fight against HIV/AIDS’
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on March 20 signed a bill approved by the D.C. Council that requires health insurance companies to cover the costs of HIV prevention or PrEP drugs for D.C. residents at risk for HIV infection.
Like all legislation approved by the Council and signed by the mayor, the bill, called the PrEP D.C. Amendment Act, was sent to Capitol Hill for a required 30-day congressional review period before it takes effect as D.C. law.
Gay D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5) last year introduced the bill.
Insurance coverage for PrEP drugs has been provided through coverage standards included in the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. But AIDS advocacy organizations have called on states and D.C. to pass their own legislation requiring insurance coverage of PrEP as a safeguard in case federal policies are weakened or removed by the Trump administration, which has already reduced federal funding for HIV/AIDS-related programs.
Like legislation passed by other states, the PrEP D.C. Amendment Act requires insurers to cover all PrEP drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Studies have shown that PrEP drugs, which can be taken as pills or by injection just twice a year, are highly effective in preventing HIV infection.
“I think this is a win for our community,” Parker said after the D.C. Council voted unanimously to approve the bill on its first vote on the measure in February. “And this is a win in the fight against HIV/AIDS.”
Women’s FEST returns to Rehoboth Beach next week
Belarusian lawmakers approve bill to crackdown on LGBTQ rights
Calendar: April 3-9
How new barriers to health care coverage are hitting D.C.
Kenyan advocacy groups launch LGBTQ voter mobilization campaign
‘Out for McDuffie’ event held at D.C. gay bar
‘Jonah’ an undeniably compelling but unusual memory play
The Oscar-losing performance that’s too good to miss
Thousands attend ‘No Kings’ protests in D.C.
