Identity Health Clinic Closes, Ending 49 Years of LGBTQ+ Services
Photo Credit: Alaska Business
A nonprofit clinic in Anchorage specializing in care for LGBTQ+ patients is closing after nearly fifty years in business. Identity Health Clinic announced Tuesday that it is transferring patients to other providers and preparing to cease operations. Friday, April 17, is the last day for in-person appointments at the Midtown clinic, and telehealth appointments will end May 1. The final day of service will be May 15.
Increasingly Inaccessible
“This decision was not made lightly,” says Executive Director Tom Pittman. The board of directors cited several challenges Identity Health Clinic had been facing. For instance, Medicaid had not paid roughly half of payments owed since December, leading to a cash flow crisis. Leadership also identified concerns related to insurance billing associated with past services, and reviewing those billing issues strained organizational capacity.
Clinic staff were also stressed by what the organization calls “an increasingly inaccessible political environment.”
More immediately, Identity’s lease required substantial investment in the space to meet the landlord’s conditions, but engineers determined that key components of the renovation were not feasible. After negotiations with the landlord, Identity was left in a position where it needed to vacate.
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“This is not only the closure of an organization. It is the loss of a long-standing piece of community infrastructure that so many people helped build and sustain,” says Pittman.
Identity started in 1977 as the Alaskan Gay Community Center to advocate for the LGBTQ community in Anchorage. The nonprofit acquired a healthcare branch in 2020 by absorbing Full Spectrum Health, a practice established in 2017 by Tracey Wiese, a doctor of nursing practice, that was renting space in the same Midtown building as Identity.
Photo Credit: Alaska Business Archives | Determine Design
“For decades, under different names and in different forms, this organization existed because our community made it exist,” Pittman says. “The need for this care has not gone away. The need for community has not gone away. The need for spaces built with dignity, safety, and lived understanding has not gone away.”
Current patients have been notified of the closure and key dates via their patient portal. Identity Health Clinic was the only center in Alaska specializing in LGBTQ+ patients and gender-affirming care, but other practitioners statewide have made those services part of their practices as well.
In the last year, new clinicians, staff support, and partnership emerging through Spokane, Washington brought additional capacity. The board says its efforts to open a Spokane clinic have ended.
Over the next few weeks, Identity will begin fundraising to support patients and staff in the wake of the closure. The nonprofit set a goal of raising $40,000 for the Health Equity Fund to uphold the promise that no patient’s bill is turned over to collections, and an additional $20,000 to ensure staff will be paid for their time and have support while seeking employment.
“Identity worked because people came together to fight for one another. That remains true now,” Pittman says. “Community has always been the source of our strength. We will still need each other. We will still need to fight for healthcare, dignity, and belonging in the place we call home.”
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