A new free health clinic for Utahns without insurance is coming to Utah County — the first full-time clinic of its kind in the community.
The Bingham Family Clinic, backed by the Marc C. and Deborah H. Bingham Foundation, is slated to open in late 2025 or early 2026 in Utah Valley University’s Health Professions Building, next to the Orem FrontRunner station. It will be open five days a week and offer primary care, urgent care and dental hygiene.
Dr. Kirk Woodward, a longtime family physician in the Uintah Basin, will oversee operations with his wife, Sherilee. Woodward said Utah County’s booming population has created the need for a full-time free clinic similar to what’s available in Salt Lake County. He said they won’t charge out-of-pocket fees or ask for insurance.
“This is for those who cannot access health care otherwise,” Woodward said.
Over 58,000 county residents are uninsured, according to Utah County Health Department Executive Director Eric Edwards.
“That's an enormous number of individuals that we need to make sure have access to care and have preventive exams and get the care they need to be able to live a healthy life.”
If there’s a financial disincentive to getting care, Edwards said, providers may not be able to catch an illness before it progresses to an advanced stage.
In addition to medical exams and preventative care, Woodward said there will also be conference rooms for classes on things like nutrition.
When patients come in, the goal is to use that as a jumping off point to connect them to other services, such as housing support, food pantries and programs for children. Woodward also wants to help patients understand other health care options are out there.
“We'll hopefully be not just caring for them and their needs right now, but helping them move into a sometimes complex system of health care that we have — hopefully helping them to navigate and receive all of the care that they eventually will need,” he said.
The clinic will be staffed by volunteers. That includes experienced medical professionals and a lot of students from local universities like UVU, Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions and the planned Brigham Young University medical school.
Edwards said the volunteer model has proven effective in part-time clinics in the county, and he thinks this clinic will increase Utah County’s capacity to meet its residents’ health needs.
