Free and income-based health clinics in East LA, the San Gabriel Valley, and Southeast LA County
The eastern side of Los Angeles County carries some of the region's oldest income-based and free health care centers. Family Health Care Centers of Greater Los Angeles traces back to a 1925 mother's clinic, AltaMed, headquartered in Commerce, has grown into the largest independent federally qualified health center in the nation, and Pasadena still runs its own city public health department separate from the county.
This page covers safety net health care clinics, which offer free and low-cost care. The guide has centers in East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights-adjacent communities, the San Gabriel Valley from Pasadena and Alhambra through El Monte, Covina, and Pomona, and the southeast cities including Huntington Park, Bell Gardens, Montebello, Pico Rivera, Downey, Norwalk, and Whittier.
County hospitals and health centers run by LA County
The county Department of Health Services runs two comprehensive health centers on this side of the county. The Edward R. Roybal Comprehensive Health Center on Fetterly Avenue serves East Los Angeles, and the El Monte Comprehensive Health Center on Ramona Boulevard covers the central San Gabriel Valley, each with adult and pediatric primary care, specialty clinics, and pharmacy services. Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey, one of the country's leading public rehabilitation hospitals, anchors the southeast.
County financial screening programs reduce or eliminate costs for low income and uninsured patients, and the county states that it does not report patients to immigration authorities. Locations, hours, and how to get started are at https://dhs.lacounty.gov/ confirm details before going, since clinic schedules change.
Public health clinics, Pasadena's health department, and help lines
The county Department of Public Health has locations in the county, and in this region the Monrovia Health Center and the Whittier Health Center currently carry public health clinic services such as immunizations, STD testing and treatment, and tuberculosis care. Check http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/ or call before visiting, since the lineup of sites continues to shift.
Pasadena is one of the few California cities that operates its own public health department. Its clinics on North Fair Oaks Avenue include adult and child immunization clinics, HIV testing, and a tuberculosis clinic, with a call center at (626) 744-7311. The same campus houses the Andrew Escajeda clinic, which the city launched in 1991 for HIV care and which is now operated by Wesley Health Centers on a sliding fee scale for HIV treatment, prevention, and primary care.
Countywide, the Department of Mental Health's 24/7 help line for mental health and substance use services is (800) 854-7771, and dialing 2-1-1 or visiting 211la.org connects residents to health, housing, food, and utility assistance anywhere in the county.
East Los Angeles and the southeast cities
AltaMed Health Services — (888) 499-9303, https://www.altamed.org. Headquartered in Commerce and rooted in East Los Angeles, AltaMed has grown into the largest independent federally qualified health center in the country, and its home turf is this side of the county. Clinics run through East LA, including the 1st Street and Whittier Boulevard corridors, and the southeast cities such as Bell Gardens, with additional locations across LA and Orange counties.
Patients of all ages receive medical care, dental care, urgent care, pharmacy services, behavioral health, HIV prevention and treatment, and senior day programs, regardless of insurance or ability to pay, with fees based on income for the uninsured. The appointment line operates weekdays into the evening plus weekend hours, with service in many languages.
Via Care Community Health Center — (323) 268-9191, https://www.viacarela.org/. Via Care began in 2010 inside the Bienvenidos community center to address East LA's shortage of care and became an independent federally qualified health center in 2015. Its full-service clinics in East Los Angeles, South Gate, and Bellflower, plus student health centers at area campuses including East Los Angeles College, provide primary care, dental, behavioral health and addiction treatment, senior care, LGBTQ+ services, and pharmacy help on a sliding fee scale, serving everyone regardless of insurance, immigration status, or ability to pay.
Family Health Care Centers of Greater Los Angeles — (562) 928-9600, https://fhccgla.com/. FHCCGLA is a century-old institution, founded in 1925 as The Mother's Clinic and serving the southeast corridor ever since. Its health centers in Bell Gardens, Downey, Hawaiian Gardens, and Commerce, along with a school-based clinic, offer family medicine, pediatrics, women's health and prenatal care, dental, optometry, podiatry, behavioral health, and pharmacy services, with the Bell Gardens center generally open evenings and Saturday mornings.
Several networks profiled on other pages of this guide also run southeast locations. South Central Family Health Center operates clinics in Huntington Park and Montebello, reachable at (323) 908-4200, and Northeast Community Clinic has health centers in Huntington Park and Bell; both are profiled on the Central and South Los Angeles page. Wesley Health Centers runs a Bell Gardens clinic with evening and Saturday hours through its countywide appointment line at (866) 733-5924.
Pasadena, Alhambra, and the San Gabriel Valley
ChapCare by AltaMed — (626) 398-6300, http://chapcare.org/. The Community Health Alliance of Pasadena, founded in 1995 to serve the area's low income and uninsured residents, was acquired by AltaMed in late 2023 and now operates as ChapCare by AltaMed. Its health centers in Pasadena, Monrovia, El Monte, and South El Monte continue to provide medical care, dental, behavioral health, and pharmacy services with a sliding fee discount for the uninsured, and older directories still listing it as an independent organization remain out of date.
Herald Christian Health Center — (626) 286-8700, https://hchcla.org/. This federally qualified health center grew from a remarkable act of community investment: local medical professionals pooled their own money in 2005 to buy the San Gabriel building where clinical services began in 2007. Its clinics in San Gabriel, Rosemead, and City of Industry serve the valley's Chinese community and all low income patients without geographic restriction, offering primary care, pediatrics, dental, optometry, behavioral health, and help enrolling in Medi-Cal, Medicare, and Covered California.
Garfield Health Center — (626) 307-7397, https://www.garfieldhealthcenter.org/. This nonprofit community clinic in Monterey Park provides primary care for adults and children, prenatal care, and dental services, with weekday and Saturday hours. It serves the west San Gabriel Valley's largely immigrant communities and accepts uninsured patients.
Chinatown Service Center, the Chinese American health and human services organization profiled on the Central and South Los Angeles page, runs several of its health and dental clinics on this side of the county, with locations in Alhambra, Monterey Park, and San Gabriel reachable at (213) 808-1700. Care comes with income-based discounts and service in Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Spanish, and English.
Planned Parenthood Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley — (626) 798-0706. The San Gabriel Valley has its own Planned Parenthood affiliate, founded in Pasadena in 1933, separate from the Los Angeles affiliate. Its health centers in Pasadena, Alhambra, Highland Park, Glendora, and Baldwin Park provide birth control, STD testing and treatment, cancer screenings, pregnancy services, and abortion care at low to no cost, with walk-ins accepted and fees based on income. East LA and the southeast cities are served instead by Planned Parenthood Los Angeles at (800) 576-5544.
Pomona, the East Valleys, and La Puente
East Valley Community Health Center — (626) 919-4333, https://www.evchc.org/. East Valley began in 1970 as a free clinic focused on family planning and has grown into a federally qualified health center for the east San Gabriel and Pomona valleys, with health centers in West Covina, Pomona, Covina, La Puente, and El Monte. Patients receive family medicine, pediatrics, women's health and mammograms, dental, vision, behavioral health, and comprehensive HIV care, with walk-ins accepted, evening and Saturday hours at the West Covina center, and no one turned away for inability to pay.
ParkTree Community Health Center — (909) 630-7927, https://www.parktreechc.org/. ParkTree traces to 1995, when Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center and local providers formed the Pomona Clinic Coalition to fill the east county's gap in care for the working poor, and it became a federally qualified health center in 2014. Its Pomona clinics offer adult and pediatric primary care, prenatal care, dental, vision, and behavioral health, free or at reduced cost on a sliding scale, with telehealth visits available.
El Proyecto del Barrio, profiled on the San Fernando Valley guide, also runs family health clinics in Azusa and Baldwin Park at the eastern end of its network, and Mission City Community Network brings its sliding scale medical, dental, and mental health services to parts of the San Gabriel and Pomona valleys through clinics and a mobile unit; see mccn.org for current sites.
Clinics in other parts of Los Angeles County
This page covers the county's east side only. A separate page on NHPB covers free and low cost clinics in Central and South Los Angeles and what health care center are located there. There are also additional guides covering the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita, and the Antelope Valley, and the Westside, South Bay, and Long Beach. For even more options, any federally funded health center can be found by address at https://findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov/.
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