HOWARD BROWN HEALTH CENTER

Howard Brown envisions a future where the health and wellness of LGBTQ people is affirmed with healthcare as a human right; where progressive social policy and enlightened societal norms uplift the lives of LGBTQ people and their families; and where affordable, accessible, and culturally competent care from non-judgmental healthcare professionals is available and provided to all who seek it.

Founded in 1974, Howard Brown Health delivers high-quality, affordable health services to patient populations and geographic areas disproportionately affected by health disparities. With an emphasis on LGBTQ people and their allies, uninsured and under-insured individuals, and people living with HIV/AIDS, the agency serves more than 40,000 adults and youth each year through primary medical care; behavioral healthcare; STI/HIV prevention, screening, and education; The Center for Education, Research and Advocacy; youth services; elder services; case management; outreach services; and dental care. These programs serve Howard Brown’s mission of eliminating health disparities and improving health outcomes experienced by LGBTQ individuals through research, education, and the provision of services that promote health and wellness. As a nationally recognized federally qualified health center (FQHC), Howard Brown provides these services regardless of patients’ ability to pay. The agency accepts private insurance and Medicaid and Medicare and has a sliding scale with a lowest nominal fee of $5. No person is turned away for inability to pay and no bills are sent to collection by Howard Brown.

With an integrated, whole health model, the agency maintains a wide reach throughout Chicago across 12 clinical sites. Spanning the city, Howard Brown offers care at its clinics in Uptown (3), Lakeview (2), Edgewater (1), Roger’s Park (1), Humboldt Park (1), Englewood (2), Back of the Yards (1), and Hyde Park (1). Ten of the agency’s clinics provide medical, behavioral health, and social support services to patients of all ages, including pediatric and geriatric individuals; the Broadway Youth Center (BYC) offers similar care exclusively for youth aged 12 to 24, many of whom experience housing instability.

In our 45-year history, Howard Brown has adapted to meet community need for medical and behavioral healthcare and social services, while contributing to the body of knowledge around LGBTQ health through research, education, and advocacy. From partnering on research behind the first hepatitis B vaccine in the 1970s to launching the Broadway Youth Center in 2004 to serve LGBTQ young people facing housing instability, our formative years were deeply rooted in responsive healthcare innovation.

In 2015, Howard Brown became a federally qualified health center, ushering in new opportunities for growth and expansion. Today, we are Chicago’s full-service LGBTQ community health center, serving more than 35,000 youth and adults at 12 clinics on the North, South, and West sides of Chicago. We continue to make our mark by partnering with patients who need to understand complex systems such as HIV treatment, gender-affirming surgery, Hepatitis C treatment, insurance enrollment, and much more. We specialize in walking patients through opaque medical and treatment processes often designed to reject patients without ample financial resources.

Because of this, we remains a leader in healthcare innovation. Some of our key achievements from the last five years include:
• Launching In Power, the nation’s first LBGTQ-focused survivor advocacy program, in 2016 to address the unique barriers to care experienced by LGBTQ survivors of sexual assault
• Offering streamlined hormone access based in informed consent for transgender and gender-diverse people to help affirm their identity, without requiring therapy, in January 2017
• Implementing the Same Day Start HIV care model in January 2018 which empowers patients to start medication at the time of diagnosis and lessens the time needed to achieve viral suppression

Additionally, we have received national recognition for our team-based model of comprehensive care. In January 2018, the National Committee for Quality Assurance recognized Howard Brown as a Patient Centered Medical Home. In March 2018, the Health Resources and Services Administration recognized Howard Brown as a Health Center Quality Leader, being among the top 30% of all federally qualified health centers for best overall clinical outcomes and for demonstrating high-quality clinical operations.

Today, we remain on the forefront. Howard Brown’s extraordinary response to the COVID-19 pandemic is another example of our entrepreneurial approach to care. Our work has been guided by decades of experience in pandemic (HIV/AIDS) and infectious disease (STIs, meningitis, hepatitis) outreach, prevention, screening, and care. Our organization was uniquely prepared to introduce large-scale testing and to expand our long-standing contact tracing program to meet need, while continuing primary and specialty care through telemedicine and in-person care when necessary. As a result, Howard Brown has become an essential partner in Chicago’s COVID-19 response.