Maryland: Medical Staff Contract With HERO to End

In a move that could force 100 patients to seek treatment elsewhere, Baltimore-based Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) recently said it will not renew a patient care contract with Health Education Resource Organization (HERO), an AIDS organization. Jeff Singer, president and CEO of HCH, said the nonprofit would not renew the contract -- expiring this week -- that provided two doctors and a nurse practitioner part-time to HERO's medical clinic under a federal grant. Singer said treating patients at HERO's clinic as well as HCH's downtown headquarters was too complicated.

Discussions about terminating HCH's contract began, Singer said, before HERO Executive Director Leonardo R. Ortega came under scrutiny for allegations by Deputy Director Indira Kotval. Kotval was fired after telling told the board that Ortega had taken $6,000 in bonuses while HERO was in fiscal straits, paid a personal trainer with HERO money, and loaned $3,000 to another nonprofit whose board he leads.

Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Peter L. Beilenson asked the FBI to examine HERO's finances because the group receives millions of dollars in federal grants for services to 3,500 HIV/AIDS clients. HERO's current and former treasurers found no wrongdoing in an internal investigation, according to a statement issued Wednesday. However, board member Lou Curran cautioned that the preliminary audit was not the final word on the controversy. Curran made his statements at HERO's spring fundraiser at the Maryland Historical Society, where he said attendance was sparse compared to last year.

Ortega said his employment contract provides bonuses and contains a "wellness package" allowing for payments to a personal trainer, and that it empowered him to make the loan last year to a Latino group, Centro de la Comunidad. The $3,000 was repaid promptly.

Singer said HCH's medical staff would work at HERO long enough to make sure patients' cases were properly turned over to other doctors, a period he estimates at two to three weeks.

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