Through the Ryan White Care Act, the city of St. Louis was granted $6.2 million to benefit those living with HIV or AIDS.
During the 2013 fiscal year, the money will be administered to patients in St. Louis’ Ryan White Care region, which also includes six surrounding Missouri counties and seven counties in Illinois, according to Dale Wrigley, bureau chief for communicable disease at the St. Louis Department of Health.
The $6.2 million will be used for primary HIV care with doctor’s visits, medical treatment, case management, oral health care and lab tests. On a smaller scale, the money might also be used for transportation costs, outreach testing, food services and housing, Wrigley said. The money will aid 5,000 patients within Missouri and about 1,000 patients in Illinois.
The City of St. Louis HIV Health Planning Council applied for the grant in late summer. The Planning Council is a mayor-appointed, 37-member body, of which 33 percent of the membership is HIV or AIDS patients, according to Kara Bowlin, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay’s press secretary.
The grant money is for “payer of last resort,” said Tawnya Brown, a 10-year veteran of the planning council.
The planning council applies for the grant every year and has received funds since 1994, said Sylvia Nelson, the grant administrator at the Center for HIV/STD and Hepatitis Services at the City of St. Louis Department of Health. The amount of money given is based on how Congress allocates funds, the number of cases that must be managed and the quality of the grant application.
“This isn’t new money,” Brown said. “It is money we’ve been relying on for over a decade, actually more around 15 years now.”
The city received a $300,000 reduction from last fiscal year’s grant of $6.5 million. Brown explained that most regions received a decrease in the 2012 fiscal year, though the city of St. Louis’s region did not.
“We always ask for more than what we receive,” Brown said. “The government doesn’t have enough money to fund the ideal system of care.”
The Ryan White Program works with cities, states and local community-based organizations to provide HIV-related services to more than half a million people each year, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration website. The program is for those who do not have sufficient health care coverage or financial resources.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, HIV/AIDs Bureau, and HRSA grant the Ryan White funds.
Central West Healthcare is one of the programs to receive a portion of the grant money for its 500 HIV patients. Clinical manager Jim Bilderback interacts with the patients on a daily basis.
“Most of the patients are completely dependent on it,” Bilderback said. “If the grant money was not there, they would have no care. They would have no medical treatment.”
In order to be eligible to receive Ryan White aid from the city of St. Louis, HIV and AIDS patients must supply documentation of their HIV status and documentation of their residency within the Planning Council Area. The restrictions on eligibility based on income vary according to family and financial circumstances.
