Locals applaud U. grant loss

When Penn and the Philadelphia Health Care Trust announced a now-dissolved $100 million grant agreement last year, the University saw the funding as an opportunity to help strengthen the once-ailing system. But not everyone in the Philadelphia community was as pleased with the decision as Penn administrators were. Two local organizations -- the Philadelphia Unemployment Project and the Action Alliance of Senior Citizens of Greater Philadelphia -- filed petitions last April in an attempt to stop Penn Medicine, the Health System's governing board, from receiving the grant. Although both groups and Penn administrators have said that this resistance was not the cause of the grant's December termination, members of the Philadelphia Unemployment Project are satisfied with the dissolution. "We feel that we called in question the whole transfer," the organization's director John Dodds said. "We feel vindicated." According to the University's Vice President and General Counsel Wendy White, no legal outcome resulted from the groups' resistance, and it did not affect the status of the grant. "It was all just pending," White said. The agreement announced in March between the University and the PHCT stipulated that Penn Medicine would receive interest on the trust over a period of seven years before inheriting the remainder of the assets by 2009. The grant was terminated last month in a "mutual" agreement, according to a memo distributed by University Board of Trustees Chairman James Riepe. The deal had not yet received the necessary approval from the Philadelphia Orphan's Court, which oversees cases to protect the rights of those unable to handle their own litigation. The Philadelphia Unemployment Project and similar local organizations opposed the grant because they claimed that the original purpose of the PHCT was to assist with developing more low-income healthcare options. "To give the entire resources of the trust to a wealthy institution like Penn is not appropriate," Dodds said. "We felt there was a better use of the resources to provide for the community at large." According to Dodds, the Philadelphia Unemployment Project would rather see the money used to improve healthcare for citizens without medical insurance and to expand access to city health centers. "We wanted the money directed toward a more specific program," Dodds said.