AIDS Healthcare Foundation Demands Chicago Health Department Stop Cuts to HIV/AIDS Care
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) filed a lawsuit against the City of Chicago, Department of Public Health (CDPH) over its handling of the administration and award of program funds under two of its 2026 Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Requests for Proposals (RFP), which defunded many organizations including AHF that provide care and treatment to people living with HIV in the Chicagoland area. The cuts disenfranchise hundreds of Chicago patients and clients from accessing the medical care and services they need from their preferred and longtime providers. The lawsuit (Case #2026CH05264), which was filed yesterday, seeks to block these cuts from going into effect and re-do the process in a fair and transparent way.
AHF asserts that the Chicago Department of Health did not follow federal law and regulations requiring it to award program funds using documented procurement procedures consistent with state and local laws and that all procurements be conducted in a manner providing full and open competition.
“In practice, the Chicago Health Department’s existing procurement procedures for the Ryan White Program resulted in the arbitrary denial of AHF’s recent bids to provide care and services under the RFPs,” said Tom Myers, General Counsel for AHF. “The Department’s failure to exercise good administrative practices, failure to act with sound business judgment and failure to comply with federal regulations is compounded by its failure to produce records related to the RFPs under Illinois’ Freedom of Information Act, which AHF asserts is information necessary to determine whether the denial of AHF’s proposals for the RFPs were improper.”
