MWHC first said Moss had been encouraged to apply for grants to cover shortfalls, but had not done so. However, Moss applied for grants with the Community Benefit Fund in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
The Lloyd Moss Free Clinic is facing a financial cliff now that operating funds raised during a 2004 capital campaign conducted by the hospital’s foundation have run down.
In an interview with the Fredericksburg Advance last week about Moss’ financial challenges, Eric Fletcher, the hospital system’s senior vice-president and chief strategy officer, said MWHC offered two options to the Moss board in 2021. One was to “assume management and operations of the clinic.”
The “other option,” Fletcher told the Advance, was for the clinic to apply for grants from the Mary Washington Hospital Foundation, as “each of the other independent free clinics in the region” does.
“We were hoping that Moss would apply for funding—they haven’t elected to do that,” Fletcher said. “They certainly could.”
This position was reiterated when MWHC told its employees in an email recap of a February 15 town hall that, “We asked the Moss Free Clinic to apply for additional support through our Foundation grant process, and they did not do so.”
But Corie Bacher, Director of Development and Community Engagement for the Moss Free Clinic, told the Advance that she applied for grants from the hospital foundation’s Joe and Mary Wilson Community Benefit Fund in August 2022 and September 2023.
Four Grants Applied for, No Success … Yet
In 2022, the clinic applied for $10,000: $5,000 for marketing and patient education materials, and $5,000 for technology enhancements to the website and the online eligibility screening tool.
Bacher said the foundation told her that the Moss Clinic would not be considered for the funds because “they feel they already give us funds [from the 2004 capital campaign].”
“[They] implied that foundation funds were very limited and suggested that the foundation does not award any organization more than $150,000,” Bacher said. “When I pressed [them] on that amount, [they tried] to walk that back.”
In September 2023, the Moss Clinic applied for $350,000 from the Community Benefit Fund. According to the application, the clinic proposed to use these funds to provide interpreters in order to better serve its non-English speaking patients (which make up 30% of its patient population) and for general operational expenses.
Funds would be used to “seek sustainable paths towards investing in the staff, volunteers, Board, resources, technology, and data management required to continue delivering comprehensive, integrated care with quality and accountability,” the clinic wrote in its application.
This application was also denied by the foundation for the same reason as in 2022, Bacher said.
“I did not receive any written communication denying our application or any of the other applications I submitted to the foundation,” she said. “I received only phone calls saying we have been denied, or funding was no longer available.” Two applications have been denied and two, from December 2023 and this month, are awaiting a response.
MWHC Clarifying Its Position
Fletcher told the Advance on Tuesday that he “learned that the Moss Free Clinic did make a submission after the grants deadline—and after the 2024 awards had already been announced and given.”
“This is why their request was declined,” he said. “It is an annual process, so the Clinic can apply in the 2025 award cycle.”
Bacher said she has not yet received a response to her most recent application to the Community Benefit Fund for $350,000, which was submitted in December.
The Moss Clinic also applied for a “mini grant” of $5,000 from the hospital’s Foundation this month and is awaiting a response.
Fletcher further clarified on Tuesday that he was not referring to the mini grants when he stated that the Moss Clinic had not elected to apply for grant funding from the foundation.
In the email recapping the February 15 town hall, MWHC wrote that it “remains a supporter of the Clinic.”
It wrote that the hospital’s foundation also supports “numerous other free and charitable clinics in our region … through the competitive grants process conducted by the Mary Washington Hospital and Stafford Hospital Foundations.”
According to MWHC’s 2022 tax return, the hospital’s Foundation supported 26 community nonprofit organizations in addition to the Moss Clinic. The other organizations received grant amounts ranging from $5,900 for Lucha Ministries to $135,000 for Micah Ministries’ residential recovery program.
Fletcher also told the Advance that “we are scheduling a meeting between members of the Moss Free Clinic Board and the MWHC Board, so conversations are ongoing.”
