The Philadelphia Inquirer recently reported on supposed financial trouble at Mazzoni Center.
“Mazzoni Center, Philadelphia’s biggest LGBTQ health agency, has had significant operating losses for three years in a row, as it has struggled to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic,” asserted the article, which was published on Feb. 13.
“The nonprofit’s financial condition became so dire that its latest financial statements, issued in October, contained a rare warning from its auditing firm that it might not be able to continue meeting its financial obligations, such as debt payments, for more than [a] year,” the article continued.
The Inquirer led with a different tone in a separate article explaining that Jefferson Health systems experienced an operating loss of $48.7 million this fiscal year. That article highlighted Jefferson’s improvement — as the health system lost $83.4 million the year before. Jefferson expects to break even by the end of this fiscal year.
So does Mazzoni. Still, the article about Mazzoni left some patients and community members concerned and confused about Mazzoni’s future. Here’s what you need to know:
What is Mazzoni’s financial state today?
“The pandemic was incredibly challenging for all health centers and almost every organization and individual,” said Sultan Shakir, president and executive officer of Mazzoni Center. “Today Mazzoni Center has a balanced budget.”
Is Mazzoni at risk for closing?
“We are 100% not at risk for closing,” underlined Shakir.
What financial trouble has Mazzoni seen in the past?
Mazzoni experienced an operating loss during the height of the pandemic and is expected to show a loss for 2023.
Interested in the details?
The Inquirer reported that Mazzoni’s auditors issued a “going concern” notice. This is a standard way to communicate that a company may not have the liquid financial resources required to meet its financial obligations over the next year.
The data for that audit was collected from July 2021 through June 2022. That’s almost two years ago, during what Shakir called “a challenging period for health centers.”
“Mazzoni had an operating loss of $2.9 million on $12 million in revenue in the year ended June 30, 2022, the audit showed. In fiscal 2021, the loss was $1.5 million on $13 million in revenue. The audit found that Mazzoni failed to meet terms of a loan agreement at the end of fiscal 2023. Mazzoni has since secured a waiver from its lender,” according to the Inquirer.
What was so challenging for Mazzoni during that year?
“We had to reduce the number of patients who were coming in,” Shakir explained. “We had to slow down the number of appointments because of cleaning in the facilities to ensure people were healthy and safe and to ensure our staff were healthy and safe and protected from the risks of COVID.
The Mazzoni team went back to the organization’s roots during the height of the pandemic, considering how and why it was founded — during a time when it was highly stigmatized to be a queer person.
“Peter Mazzoni was literally going to individuals’ homes to take blood samples when the broader medical community didn’t want to touch queer and trans individuals because of the stigma,” explained Shakir. “And he was taking the blood samples over to Jefferson himself to get tested — because again, no one else wanted to literally touch us because of the stigma that was around the LGBTQ community at that time.”
Shakir said he was incredibly impressed with the resilience of Mazzoni staff members, who worked hard throughout the worst months of the pandemic to ensure LGBTQ+ people had access to queer-competent services. One of the ways Mazzoni responded to the community’s needs was by providing COVID testing at apartment buildings and in the private homes of patients.
“We were doing testing in the community and ensuring people knew about our food bank for individuals who were struggling financially to access food,” he said. “The pandemic work was really about ensuring that our community holistically was well.”
How will Mazzoni increase revenue?
Mazzoni plans to increase revenue by increasing accessibility. That means more appointment slots and new service offerings. One of Mazzoni’s new initiatives is offering anaoscopies, which can detect anal cancer — a cancer that disproportionately affects people living with HIV — who have an incidence rate 30 times higher than others — and may also be linked with HPV. Shakir explained that these screenings are sometimes overlooked by other providers and aren’t always accessible.
“While one of the many things that differentiates Mazzoni Center is our expertise in HIV care and gender-affirming care, we know that expertise yields the highest quality results as part of a primary care patient / provider relationship,” said Shakir, who hope that people seeking “comprehensive, whole person care” will trust Mazzoni to become their primary care provider now that care is more accessible.
Will Mazzoni patient costs increase this year?
“We provide care to everyone regardless of your ability to pay,” Shakir said. “So if you are somebody who’s low income, we charge a lower rate and that will not change.” Sliding scale options will continue to be available — with fees as low as $0 – $25 depending on the service.
The Inquirer noted that rates will be increasing for patients — but that doesn’t mean patient costs will go up. Mazzoni was recently certified as a federally-qualified health center lookalike, a program that assists community-based health initiatives with the costs of providing care to underserved patients.
The designation expanded access to federal funding that offsets the costs Mazzoni previously absorbed itself to ensure those who couldn’t pay for services retained access to services. The new designation will also help make prescriptions more affordable.
“It’s a way the government supports health centers like Mazzoni Center that provide care for a discount or care for free to marginalized communities,” Shakir explained. He also recognized the impact of LGBTQ+ people and of other queer-centered organizations who have donated to Mazzoni over the years.
“The constant that continues to sustain Mazzoni Center, as it has since we started as a volunteer organization over four decades ago, is the support of our deeply caring and generous community,” he said. “We could never have lasted this long and changed and saved so many lives without the contributions of so many.”
Will wait times be affected?
In an effort to increase accessibility, Mazzoni recently eliminated lengthy wait times, which Shakir said has spanned as long as nine months in the past. Now that Mazzoni has increased the number of appointments available, its patients — including new patients — can usually find an appointment within a week.
How does Mazzoni plan to stay connected to the community?
“One of the things that Mazzoni Center is about to embark on is a conversation with the community around how Mazzoni Center can engage with people who are not patients and clients because of challenges accessing traditional health care,” Shakir said. He’s concerned about the needs of people who experience barriers to access — such as financial constraints, geographical limitations, or disability.
“One of the things that we’re looking at over the next year is how we can really ensure that we’re getting care where people are in a way that people need,” he emphasized.