What is a Free Clinic?

Free Clinics are nonprofit, community-based organizations that provide medical care at little or no charge to low-income, uninsured and underinsured persons through the use of volunteer health care professionals and partnerships with other health providers.

Ohio has 40+ free medical clinics. The following are common characteristics of Ohio’s free clinics:

Community-Based

No two free clinics are alike. They are custom-designed by communities to meet identified health care needs using the community's unique health care assets and resources. Free Clinics are governed by volunteer Boards of Directors representing a broad cross-section of the community and are each their own 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Nonprofit

Free clinics are nonprofit organizations supported primarily by donations and contributions from the private sector. Ohio’s free clinics are supported in part by the Ohio Department of Health.

Volunteer-Driven

Volunteerism is a central feature of free clinics. Free clinic services are provided primarily or exclusively by volunteer health care professionals serving in the clinic's facility and/or in their own private practice setting. Lay volunteers also perform a variety of administrative and clerical tasks in order to keep overhead costs low.

Target Low-income, Uninsured adults

This is the population that has the greatest difficulty accessing affordable health care services. While eligibility criteria vary from one to the next, most free clinics serve patients at or below 200% FPL who are uninsured and live in the community.

Little or no Charges

Free clinics believe that inability to pay should not prevent people from receiving health care. To this end, free clinics provide services at little or no charge.

Compassionate Care

Free clinics place strong emphasis on providing non-judgmental, compassionate care, respecting the dignity and self-worth of every patient.