AHF seeks court intervention to overturn recent
Ryan White grant awards in several categories, including the
‘non-selection’ of AHF in at least two categories in which AHF was
the sole bidder.
AHF asserts that recent actions by the
Department of Health, along recent federal audits and fines over
Ryan White documentation and expenditures, make it “a poor steward
of federal HIV/AIDS funds.”
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS
organization and largest provider of HIV/AIDS care in the United
States, has filed a lawsuit against the King County Department of
Public Health over what AHF asserts is the flawed Request for
Application grant application process and its subsequent award of
Ryan White grants for HIV/AIDS care and services in Seattle.
Through its lawsuit, filed Friday, March 17, 2017 in the Superior
Court for the State of Washington in and for the County of King,
(Case #17-2-06620-6 SEA), AHF seeks the court’s intervention
to overturn recent Ryan White grant awards made by King County in
several categories, including the ‘non-selection’ of AHF in at
least two categories in which AHF was the sole bidder or respondent
to the County’s Request for Application (RFA) process. Ryan White
grants are largely pass-through grants from the federal government
that provide funding to community-based organizations such as AHF
to support the provision of medical and support services to low
income people with HIV.
In its Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order against
the Department of Public Health, AIDS Healthcare Foundation
asserted that:
“… local administrative agencies may not
burden or restrict competition in the award of federal funds under
the Ryan White program by ‘[p]lacing unreasonable requirements on
firms in order for them to qualify to do business, …
[o]rganizational conflicts of interest,’ or through ‘[a]ny
arbitrary action in the procurement process’.”
AIDS Healthcare has a well-grounded fear of
an immediate invasion of its rights to an objective, impartial, and
fair review of the proposal it submitted under the September 2016
RFA due to several material irregularities that provided
substantial advantages to competing bidders.”
AIDS Healthcare also added in its TRO Motion that:
“…two of the four reviewers in the
Psychosocial Support Services category [in which no grants were
awarded—and in which AHF was the sole applicant] stated that they
had conflict of interest due to professional relationships with
competing applicants.”
In its accompanying Complaint for Injunctive Relief, AHF
formally petitioned the Court:
“ … for an order directing the Department of
Public Health (‘Public Health’) to (1) enter into contracts with
AIDS Healthcare Fund (‘AIDS Healthcare’) for the six categories of
HIV-Related Care Services for the Seattle Transitional Grant Area
dated September 15, 2016 for which AIDS Healthcare submitted
applications or (2) enter into contracts with AIDS Healthcare for
the two categories of HIV-Related Care Services for the Seattle
Transitional Grant Area dated September 15, 2016 for which AIDS
Healthcare was the only applicant to submit applications.
Alternatively, AIDS Healthcare requests that this Court grant both
preliminary and permanent injunctions to prevent Public Health from
entering into any contracts with applicants based upon Public
Health’s Request for Applications (RFA) for HIV-Related Care
Services for the Seattle Transitional Grant Area dated September
15, 2016.”
Background on AHF’s Ryan White (RFA)
Grant Application Experience in King County
On September 15, 2016, King County announced and opened its
request for application (RFA) process for its latest Ryan White
grant cycle, which began March 1, 2017.
By October 11, 2016, AHF submitted applications to the King
County Department of Health for Ryan White grants to provide
HIV/AIDS care and services in six program categories: psychosocial
support services; medical transportation; Minority AIDS Initiative
(MAI) early intervention services; non-medical case management
services; outreach services; and outpatient ambulatory medical
treatment adherence. The approximate value or amount of these six
grants was $169,000.
On December 29, 2016, King County’s Ryan White Program Manager
Kate Briddell informed AHF that the health department’s
grant review committee rejected all six of AHF’s applications.
- January 3, 2017 - AHF files for an
appeal protesting the “non-selection” of its RFAs.
- February 21, 2017 - AHF files a
supplementary letter to its protest of “non-selection.”
- March 1, 2017 – New Ryan White grant
year commences.
- March 13, 2017 – King County Department
of Health informs AHF that it has rejected AHF’s appeal.
King County Health Dept. Audited, Fined
$2M by HRSA Over Earlier Mismanagement of Ryan White
In addition to its current lawsuit, AHF is also accusing the
Department of Public Health of being a poor steward of federal
HIV/AIDS funds. For the period between 2011 and 2013, the Public
Health Department was audited by HRSA (the overseer of Ryan White
funding), which found $5 million in questionable costs that had
inadequate documentation supporting its Ryan White expenditures.
While it appears that these issues compelled King County to return
approximately $2 million to HRSA, the health department has yet to
account for the entire period in question.
Background on AHF and its Involvement
with Ryan White
Established in 1987, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the
largest HIV/AIDS service organization in the world. Domestically,
AHF operates medical clinics, HIV specialty pharmacies, HIV managed
care programs, and HIV prevention, testing, and education services
in 16 States and the District of Columbia, including over 24
metropolitan areas like Seattle receiving funding under the Ryan
White CARE Act.
Since 2012, AHF has served thousands of clients in King County,
and has partnered with local community based organizations to
augment the local response to HIV/AIDS and reach many more in need
of services. After making substantial local investments as well as
commitments in staff, facilities and partnerships, AHF responded to
the RFA with a series of modest proposals to further strengthen the
local response to the epidemic.
In the United States, the HIV/AIDS epidemic is predominantly
driven by people who are unaware they are infected, or are aware of
their status but are not in regular care. Without access to regular
care and antiretroviral medication, people with HIV/AIDS are
sicker, and unwittingly infectious. Getting people aware of their
status, into regular care, and adherent to a medication regimen are
the keys to reducing new infections and stopping the epidemic. The
purpose of the Ryan White CARE Act is to expand services and points
of access to care, which makes the health department’s decision to
unfairly exclude AHF so bewildering, especially in light of the
recent HRSA audits of the Department of Public Health.
“As it does when AHF begins providing services in a new area, we
built our services in King County a number of years before Ryan
White contracts were available for bid. We did so in order to first
establish relationships and alliances with other service
organizations, to determine need and augment existing services, and
to become part of the network of care providers in the area,” said
Jonathan Petrus, AHF Chief/National Bureau & Investment,
who supervises domestic operations in regions that include King
County. “Just as we have done in other geographies, AHF invested
substantial amounts of our own resources locally. Our goal is to
reach those people and areas of King County still in need of
services, which, of course, is the primary purpose of the Ryan
White CARE Act.”
According to the 2016 Epidemiology Report for Washington State
and Seattle/King County, at the end of 2015 there were 7,071 people
living with HIV or AIDS in Seattle/King County and 13,021 people
who have been diagnosed with HIV in the state of Washington.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS
organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to
over 707,000 individuals in 38 countries worldwide in the US,
Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and
Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website:
www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter:
@aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170320006311/en/
AHFGed Kenslea, Senior Director, Communications+1
323-308-1833 (work) or +1 323-791-5526
(mobile)gedk@aidshealth.orgorTom Myers, General Counsel and
Chief of Public Affairs for AHF+1
323-860-5259tom.myers@aidshealth.org