Financial Woes Face Black HIV Group
Gay Men of African Descent on hiatus as its aims to shift funding model
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
A Brooklyn organization
that focuses on HIV
prevention and sexual
health among African-
American gay and bisexual men
will go on hiatus for the summer
while it reorganizes from its current
grant-based funding scheme
to a fee-for-service provider model
under which it will deliver mental
health, substance abuse, and other
services to its clients.
“We have discussed needing to
shift,” said Vaughn Taylor-Akutagawa,
the executive director at Gay
Men of African Descent (GMAD).
“Just being a grant recipient is not
sustainable.” Founded in 1986,
GMAD has not adapted to newer
service models required by government
funders that fi rst emphasized
expanded HIV testing. Given
its smaller size, GMAD could not
DUNCAN OSBORNE
Vaughn Taylor-Akutagawa, executive director at
Gay Men of African Descent, outside the agency’s
Atlantic Avenue offi ces in Brooklyn.
produce the volume of testing that
government agencies wanted. More
recently, funders required organizations
to swiftly move people
who tested positive for HIV into
treatment so that the virus is suppressed
to the point that they cannot
infect others. Funders also seek
to move people who are HIV-negative
but at risk for the virus on to
pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP),
which is a pill-a-day regimen that
prevents HIV infection. These HIV
prevention strategies require that
funded agencies see large numbers
of clients.
Over time, government grants
became GMAD’s primary revenue
source, but it could not produce the
volume of results that government
funders wanted and so that funding
has steadily disappeared.
As an alternative, GMAD is
seeking licenses from the federal
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services and from the state Offi ce
of Alcohol and Substance Abuse
Services (OASAS) to deliver mental
health and substance abuse services
at its Atlantic Avenue offi ce.
That will allow the agency to bill
Medicaid and private insurance for
services.
“The model we worked on just
wasn’t working,” Taylor-Akutagawa
said. “Our idea is to spend this
time, since it’s quieter, getting ready
HEALTH
for the Article 31.”
An Article 31 license allows a
provider to deliver “integrated outpatient
services” for clients needing
mental health or substance abuse
assistance.
CheckBook NYC, a site that is
administered by the city comptroller’s
offi ce, indicates that GMAD
received its last check from the
city health department in October
2016. That was for $30,000. The
agency received $50,400 in three
payments from the state health
department in 2018 with the last
check being cut in April 2018, according
to Open Book New York,
a site that is administered by the
state comptroller’s offi ce.
Taylor-Akutagawa told Gay City
News that GMAD just sent out its
last voucher for a city health department
contract this month, but
➤ GMAD WOES, continued on p.51
BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY
DRX9000TM
RELIEVES BACK PAIN
Local doctor treats herniated and bulging discs,
sciatica, and serious lower back pain
WITHOUT BACK SURGERY
S Surgeons perform f an estimated i d 3
300,000 to 400,000
back surgeries every year. Annually, neurosurgeons
perform at least 100,000 operations for lumbar disc
disease alone, and orthopedic surgeons perform a
similar number. It is estimated that between 20% and
40% of these operations are unsuccessful.
That is why doctors from all over the country
are racing to acquire and get trained to operate the
DRX9000TM, an FDA approved device that is saving
thousands of Americans suffering from chronic back
pain from going under the knife.
Dr. Melinda Keller, who treats serious back
pain without surgery explains how the DRX9000TM
works... “Over 10 years ago, NASA began to notice
an unexpected result of space travel: Astronauts that
left with back pain would come back without it. After
investigated this now phenomenon here’s what they
found: During the anti-gravity state of the mission there
were decompressive forces on the intervertebral discs
and back pain was relieved. How? When you travel
through space, the effects of gravity are removed
and you are in a weightless state. All the pressure is
taken off your spine and discs. Even better — and
this is the key — a negative pressure is created. This
negative pressure actually sucks the herniated material
back into the disc and allows it to heal. Thanks to the
DRX9000TM, disc herniation sufferers finally have a
non-surgical solution.”
The main conditions the DRX9000TM has documented
success with are back pain, sciatica, herniated
and/or bulging discs (single or multiple), degenerative
disc disease, facet syndromes and a relapse or failure
following back surgery.
Anyone wishing to learn more about this new
FDA approved solution to back pain or to set up an
appointment for a free consultation call Dr. Keller’s
office at 718 234-6212 or visit Brooklyn Spine
Center, 5911 16th Ave., Brooklyn, New York 11204.
Brooklynspinecenter.com.
GayCityNews.com | July 4 - July 17, 2019 29
/Brooklynspinecenter.com
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