AIDS activists protest lack of research center

PORTLAND — ACT-UP Maine, a group of AIDS activists, staged a brief but vocal protest Monday calling for Maine Medical Center to make good on its promise to establish an AIDS research center.

Nearly three dozen demonstrators marched in front of the hospital for a half-hour, chanting such slogans as “Stop your lies, stop your greed, a resource center is what we need.”

Matthew Batten, a spokesman for the 30-member group, which is affiliated with a national coalition of the same name, said hospital administrators had promised the AIDS community in Portland at least two years ago that they would develop a research center to study the deadly disease and treat its victims.

Batten also said that Portland’s doctors have turned their backs to the AIDS epidemic and that some AIDS victims with Medicaid insurance have been “dumped” by doctors who refuse to continue to care for them.

Batten said he could not give a precise number of patients whose cases have been discontinued by Maine doctors. He said that because medical records are confidential and many AIDS victims do not want their identities published, it is difficult to pinpoint an exact number.

MMC President William Deal said that the hospital wanted to help Mainers with AIDS, but that a resource center would cost $1.2 million during the first year alone. Deal said MMC’s request to raise its rates to cover the cost of a resource center was rejected last year by the Department of Human Services.

“If we got state approval to do that, we would be able to get reimbursed,” said Deal. “We simply cannot afford to swallow that kind of money.”

Elaine Fuller, director of the Bureau of Medical Services, said Medicaid recipients who have AIDS are eligible for new or continued coverage, but “not all physicians accept Medicaid patients, whether they have AIDS or not.” It is legal for doctors to take that action, she said.

Bureau of Health Director Lani Graham said there was no specific facility in the state that devotes its time solely to AIDS research. Most research and patient care is done by expanded outpatient centers, she said.

“This idea is not a new idea,” she said. “Part of the problem is finding the funds.”