Affordable HealthCare: A Review of the Free Clinic of Central Virginia

I lost my health insurance at thirteen years old when my dad stopped working due to his desire to avoid paying child support. That was when I first became a patient at The Free Clinic of Central Virginia located in Lynchburg, VA. Being a patient there for fifteen years, I witnessed many of their shady practices. Feeling this was wrong, I tried to find out as much information as I could every time I was there by listening to the staff's conversations and chatting with the other patients.

How they decide who gets to be a patient is interesting. It's supposed to be based solely on income and lack of insurance. However, after a few years of being a patient there my mom was barred from being a Free Clinic patient because she had the option at her job to pay extra for medical insurance. Not that it mattered to the Free Clinic, but it was too expensive and she couldn't afford it. After speaking with many patients, I discovered that most of them had that option at their jobs as well. Unlike my mom, they were still patients at the Free Clinic.

After my mom was put on Medicaid, I asked the Free Clinic if they accepted Medicaid. I was told that they didn't see patients with Medicaid and insurance. However, many patients told me that they had Medicaid. So why was my mom singled out and barred from being a patient since she met the low income qualification? The only conclusion we ever came to was because she had some expensive medical problems that they didn't want to use their limited resources for. Thankfully, her problems were treated elsewhere before they could escalate into cancer and result in her possible death.

While it is called the Free Clinic of Central Virginia, they stopped being free a few years ago. Even when someone cannot afford to pay, they still force them. I remember this one lady standing there counting out pennies and nickels to pay their fee of five dollars. It was so sad that they were taking what was obviously all the money that she had.

One of the worse treatments I've seen of patients is how they handle the dental appointments. If you sit there in the waiting room and listen, you hear them make immediate dental appointments for some people, but then deny others. They pick and choose who they want to help, and deny others who are just as needy. It's completely unfair. To avoid these practices, I bought dental insurance. But many people do not have that option because of the cost.

Another bad practice at the Free Clinic is how they will refuse some people the privilege of going to the bathroom. To access the bathroom, you must be buzzed through the door to get to the area where the bathroom is located. I once asked them if I could go to the bathroom and I was told to go down the street to somewhere else. However, nothing much is open on Main Street at night. And if you're not in the clinic, you miss your turn. I went out the main door and circled around to the back to enter through the staff entrance. I did go to the bathroom, but then I went home after that since I was angry and didn't have the blood work done that I was there for. Later, I told their director what had happened, and he admitted that it wasn't proper procedure. However, I've also seen them do this to other people since then.

Needless to say, I'm no longer a patient at the Free Clinic of Central Virginia. A little over two years ago, I was having what might have been a serious medical problem and I contacted the clinic for a day-time appointment. I told them what was wrong, and they agreed that it seemed serious. Then I was told that I was too close to needing to do update screening that has to be done every three months. I was fully aware that they made exceptions to this policy since I've seen it done for other people, but they wouldn't do it for me. And they wouldn't make me an appointment for update screening until a month later.

After I finally did the update screening, they kept delaying reviewing the information so that I could be seen by a doctor. That had never happened to me in the fifteen years that I was a patient there. Depending on who you ask, usually the patients can see a doctor after doing the update screening if the information is the same.

After two months of delays, I had to seek help elsewhere. And since you cannot be a patient there if you're a patient somewhere else, I could no longer be a free clinic patient. Thankfully, the free clinic isn't the only affordable healthcare option in this area. In my next article, I will be reviewing another place that has affordable healthcare for people in Lynchburg and the surrounding counties.