HEALTH
LGBTQ Health Centers Scramble to Vaccinate NYers
Non-profi ts struggling to keep up with demand during grueling COVID pandemic
BY TAT BELLAMY-WALKER
Workers at community health centers
serving LGBTQ populations
in the city are feeling overburdened
as they scramble to vaccinate
New Yorkers and simultaneously care for
other patients, prompting them to call on the
city and state to provide more fi nancial assistance.
As the state expands vaccine eligibility to
include people 75 years or older and essential
workers, several major health centers told Gay
City News they are struggling to meet the growing
demand. This comes as many health offi -
cials juggle burnout, staffi ng shortages, and
high costs associated with distributing the vaccine.
“When we’re in the trenches, they keep asking
us to do more,” said Tom Marino, chief transformation
offi cer for Harlem United, a community
health center in Manhattan. “But we don’t know
how much more we can give. There are people
who are sick because they’re exhausted, and
when you have run yourself down, you become
more susceptible to COVID. I’m seeing more of
my staff become ill.”
The US began administering the vaccine to
clinicians in December. Since then, Mayor Bill
de Blasio announced on Twitter that he’s committed
to administering one million COVID-19
vaccinations in January.
As of January 14, more than 266,000 people
in New York City received their fi rst dose of the
COVID-19 vaccine and at least 37,114 people received
their second dose, according to the city’s
daily COVID-19 tracker.
Marino’s staff has a goal of vaccinating at
least 50 people per day, but with more clinicians
out sick due to COVID-19, Harlem United
is trying to fulfi ll the state’s needs with fewer
people on hand. Marino said he was diagnosed
with COVID-19 and is quarantining.
According to the New York State Department
of Health’s “Medicaid Coverage Policy
and Billing Guidance for the Administration of
COVID-19 Vaccines,” practitioners can be reimbursed
$13.23 per injection.
At this rate, Marino said his organization
would have to administer 1,000 vaccinations
just to make $13,000. Still, this would account
for just a fraction of a nurse’s salary, according
to Marino, who asserted that nurses would
need to administer at least 10 vaccines per hour
before they could make what he described as a
“couple of pennies.”
The city’s mass vaccination campaign comes
with increased administrative costs, including
reporting and tracking each dosage. Because
Callen-Lorde has been vaccinating New Yorkers in the face of profound challenges.
of COVID, there are fewer patients coming into
their offi ces, which means their bottom line is
also taking a hit.
“It’s not sustainable,” said Marino, who noted
that the offi ce received more than 120 calls
earlier this week about the vaccine. “It’s a lot of
management. A lot of coordination and $13 per
shot is just not going to cut it.”
Health centers like Callen-Lorde, which
serves queer clients, and Housing Works, a nonprofi
t focused on HIV/AIDS and homelessness,
said they need more staff to keep up with the
volume of patients. Housing Works president
Matthew Bernardo said his organization needs
more fi nancial support for vaccine outreach
and education.
“This is a double dose type of situation,” Bernardo
said regarding the CDC’s guidance to
administer two injections. “We need outreach
workers to fi nd folks who are vulnerable and
are now eligible. They are not necessarily going
to come in on their own from just an email.”
To undertake the city’s plan, both Housing
Works and Callen-Lorde have redirected staff
away from other departments to vaccinate.
Meanwhile, Harlem United is planning to expand
telehealth services, freeing up more space
to administer vaccines.
Anthony Fortenberry, director of nursing at
the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center,
said his team has been doing more with less
ever since the pandemic slammed the city in
TWITTER/CALLEN-LORDE COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER
March.
“We are calling on again to put in overtime
and work extra hours to vaccinate their colleagues,
their patients, and the community,” he
said.
Both Housing Works and Callen Lorde are
facing looming cuts to the states’ 340B drug
discount program for managed Medicaid providers,
which could make it even more challenging
to vaccinate the city’s most vulnerable
populations. The cuts are slated for April and
offi cials said this essentially could make widespread
vaccination efforts go stagnant.
“It’s really hard to hire right now when we
could have to lay them off in two months,”
Fortenberry said. “With this fi scal cliff we’re
facing, it puts us in a very diffi cult position of
not being able to hire and staff these vaccine
clinics to what we feel we would need to meet
our patients’ demands.”
The vaccinations also come with a lengthy
virtual attestation form. This has become a
hassle for elderly patients — and is an even
more costly burden for the centers.
“I had an 83-year-old patient and it took him
a long time to get through that online form,”
Fortenberry added. “We had to have an extra
person sit in the waiting area and go through
the form with each individual patient which really
backed us up.”
“Now we need two people to just get one vaccine
done,” he said.
JANUARY 28 - FEBRUARY 10, 2 26 021 | GayCityNews.com
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