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It is our mission to facilitate access to health care for all with a focus
on the needs of the uninsured. At Ithaca Free Clinic we offer 100% free conventional and holistic
healthcare services for anyone without health insurance.
Ithaca Free Clinic is open to all uninsured members of our community. Our staff of volunteer
physicians, herbalists, acupuncturists and others join with us in supporting the belief that
access to health care is a right, and not a privelige. Ithaca Free Clinic is located at 225
South Fulton Street, Suite B in Ithaca, NY. (link
to map) We're right next door to Agway of Ithaca, and upstairs from Gallagher's Electronics,
Century21 Real Estate, and Soundworks.
We have twice weekly walk-in service hours at the clinic:
Mondays 2-6pm
Thursdays 4-8pm
and we offer free adult physicals by appointment only:
on the 4th Tuesday of each month.
If you have questions about IFC and our services, please feel free to call our Free Clinic
Coordinator at 607-330-1254 or email him at clinic@ithacahealth.org.
Since the founding of the Ithaca Health Alliance in 1997, it was part of our dream to be able
to provide free health services to anyone in need, here in our hometown of Ithaca, NY. After eight
years of judicious saving of member contributions and other gifts, we decided that we had reached
a point where the organization could afford to open a free clinic and also continue to support its
other programs. Many volunteers from throughout our community worked very hard from the end of 2004
through 2005 to plan how the clinic would work, locate a space for the clinic, and find healthcare
professionals who were able to volunteer to see patients. Other free clinics were visited,
conversations with Tompkins County's primary care centers were held, and after a whirlwind year's
worth of work, IFC opened its doors on January 23, 2006.
Since the beginning, Ithaca Free Clinic was planned as an integrated medical center where
patients could receive both conventional medical care offered by physicians and nurse practitioners,
and also seek care from holistic professionals so that our visitors had access to a healthy variety
of choices in the healthcare they receive. We are proud to be one of the only medically
integrated free clinics in the United States.
Although donations are welcomed at any time, no fees are ever charged for services at Ithaca
Free Clinic. Anyone who is not insured for the service they seek at IFC can come to the clinic,
free of charge. Although we cannot see patients with insurance, our staff can work with insured
individuals to find primary care providers who can accept their insurance. Because our facilities
are limited, there are some healthcare services we simply cannot provide in-house, and in many
cases, patients will have to pay for these referral services (specialist visits, diagnostic
procedures, immunizations, and some prescriptions). We try to work with our visitors to find the
best options for necessary costs.
If you have a medical emergency, you should seek immediate care at the hospital, convenient
care center, or other available option. IFC is not equipped as an emergency room, and many
emergency situations cannot wait a few days until the next free clinic hours!
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