Health care group, church to open free medical clinic | Services

Rollins said she is helping lead the initiative. She aims to have various free services available, such as lab tests, eye exams, cancer screenings, HIV testing, glucose meters, vaccines and dental care.

Rollins said the free clinic’s goal is to increase accessibility and affordability to health care services and get more people the medical services they need.

“That’s the goal, just to be able to help those that are generally left behind with health care inequality,” she said.

As Frederick County’s population has increased over the past few years, so has the number of people without insurance. The most recent U.S. Census American Community Survey from 2021 estimates that out of a county population of about 276,000, about 14,400, or 5%, were uninsured.

The 2021 ACS estimates that about 6% of Maryland residents were uninsured.

Rollins said the collaboration came about when the church invited the American Diversity Group in Germantown to participate in the church’s annual block party.

Mayur Mody, the group’s executive director, told Rollins about initiatives the group already conducts in Montgomery County, such as preventative screenings, COVID-19 testings and flu shots.

Rollins said she told Mody that it would be great to have those services available in Frederick County through Asbury. The conversation evolved into a plan.

Mody said the American Diversity Group runs a free medical clinic in Montgomery County and wants to replicate that in Frederick County.

“The health care is taken care of for people and without insurance, at no cost,” Mody said. “We would not like to have any kind of payment from the people.”

Rollins said she plans to invite health organizations within the county, such as the Frederick County Health Department, and other parts of Maryland to participate.

The county Health Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Mody said if the monthly clinic program goes well, he’d like to open the clinic more than once a month. He said he hopes for state and county support of the free medical clinic to help spread awareness.

“We still need to make sure that we will sustain, and go on and support the community [for] the longest possible time,” Mody said.

Rollins said she wants the monthly clinic to continue for a while.

She the clinic and its free services will be significant for people who already feel “discarded by society.”

“To me, I think there’s nothing worse than being sick and not having the money to be able to be treated or to not even know if you’re sick,” she said. “Just to be able to go into a space where someone’s asking you, ‘How are you? What can I do? How can I help you?’ I think that will make people feel more attuned to their own humanity.”