The agency was facing the possibility of having to shut down a large percentage of its facilities (anathema to any organization governmental) if its patient population continued to shrink.
Mission creep.
Just like the March of Dimes shifted its objective from polio to birth defects after polio was virtually eradicated, and the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis (the "Christmas Seals" folks) shifted their mission to lung disease for the same reason.
Frankly, I've seen both sides of the coin and given the choice between health care run by private enterprise or health care run by the government, I'd run screaming from the latter to the former.