One Year Later: How Rx Partnership and Virginia’s Free Clinics Rebuilt Medication Access Together
One year ago, thousands of Virginians suddenly didn’t know where their next prescription would come from. Here’s how Rx Partnership and the network of free and charitable clinics we partner with worked together for a solution.
In June 2025, the abrupt closure of Lloyd F. Moss Free Clinic in Fredericksburg sent shockwaves through Virginia’s health care safety net. For fifteen free clinics across the Commonwealth that depended on weekly prescription deliveries from Moss Clinic’s pharmacy, the linchpin of Rx Partnership’s Access to Medication Program (AMP) since 2017, the news was devastating. Almost overnight, our partner clinics lost access to a program that delivered thousands of prescriptions each year to patients with no other affordable options — people managing diabetes, heart disease, asthma, and other chronic conditions that could be life-threatening without medication and pharmacy services.
Twelve months later, the story has changed. Not because the problem went away, but because the RxP Board, staff and the free clinic community worked together to fix it.
What Was Lost
To understand what happened in June 2025, it helps to know what AMP meant to the clinics it served.
Rx Partnership launched the Access to Medication Program in 2017 to fill a gap: many free clinics can see and treat patients, but without a licensed pharmacy on-site, they have no way to reliably access affordable medications. AMP changed that. By partnering with licensed free clinic pharmacies, RxP made it possible for clinics without pharmacy capacity to get prescriptions filled and shipped directly to clinics that serve as a medical home to uninsured patients. By June 2025, the program was serving fifteen clinics statewide — providing more than 21,600 prescriptions valued at over $12 million to nearly 3,500 patients in a single year.
When Moss Clinic closed, that lifeline snapped.
The First Days: Improvising Under Pressure
In the immediate aftermath, RxP did what we always do in a crisis — we improvised. The RxP team of staff and board members quickly assessed the damage and strategized on how to reestablish medication access as quickly as possible. Working with dedicated Moss volunteers, RxP supported one final round of shipments to AMP clinics and coordinated a variety of logistical steps related to the pharmacy closure – including moving two massive pharmacy refrigerators to clinics in the region that could use them.
While RxP worked to do that, partner clinic staff scrambled to connect their patients with retail pharmacies and Patient Assistance Programs (PAPs) offered by drug companies, a process that requires a different application form for each medication and can take weeks to navigate. Some clinics established accounts at local pharmacies and paid for patient prescriptions.
These workarounds helped, but they weren’t long-term solutions. Retail costs remained out of reach for many patients and the clinics that supported them. PAP applications took time that patients managing chronic conditions didn’t have. Rx Partnership provided over $14,000 to the AMP clinics as bridge funding during the crisis — enough to blunt some of the impact, but not to replace what had been lost.
The need for a rebuilt AMP was urgent and clear.
Rising to Meet the Moment
Recovery began almost immediately — and it was driven not by Rx Partnership alone, but by clinics stepping up for each other.
Northern Neck-Middlesex Free Health Clinic in Kilmarnock, which had joined the AMP network as a pharmacy partner just months before Moss closed, quickly expanded its capacity to take on additional clinics. By July 2025, Northern Neck was the sole AMP Pharmacy standing — and they didn’t shrink from that responsibility.
Then Sinclair Health Clinic in Winchester stepped forward. Despite already filling more than 3,000 prescriptions each month for their own patients, Sinclair’s team made space to serve AMP clinics too. “We volunteered to serve as an AMP pharmacy because we see the need — not just in our community here, but everywhere in the state of Virginia,” said Dr. Mercedes Abbet, Sinclair’s Executive Director.
From there, the rebuild gained momentum:
- July 2025: 1 AMP Pharmacy. 2 clinics back in the program. 215 prescriptions filled that first month.
- October 2025: 2 AMP Pharmacies. 7 clinics. Prescription volume climbing to 1,267 per month.
- February 2026: 10 clinics. 1,532 prescriptions. 634 unique patients receiving medications.
A Third AMP Pharmacy: Bradley Free Clinic
As healthcare needs continue to grow in Southwest Virginia, expanding regional pharmacy capacity has become increasingly important. Bradley Free Clinic is now stepping forward as a key partner in this effort.
For more than 50 years, Bradley has improved the lives and the health of underserved residents in the Roanoke Valley. Through its new partnership with Rx Partnership as an AMP Pharmacy partner, Bradley will help expand medication access for uninsured patients across Southwest Virginia, beginning in June with support for the Community Health Center of the New River Valley and additional clinics expected to onboard in the coming months.
At a time when one in four Virginians struggle to afford prescription medications, the partnerships with the three clinics serving as AMP Pharmacies represent an important investment in strengthening the healthcare safety net for rural and underserved communities.
One Year Later – Numbers Tell Part of the Story. People Tell the Rest.
As of June 2026, twelve months following a medication access disaster, AMP is now back to serving eleven clinics, with four additional former AMP clinic partners next in line.
Rx Partnership is once again in a place where we can entertain the idea of new partner relationships, targeting those regions of the state that have been identified as pharmacy deserts, where access to affordable prescriptions is desperately needed.
For free clinic patients, access to AMP-dispensed medications isn’t a convenience — it means continuity. When prescriptions are available at the clinic that serves as their medical home, patients don’t need transportation to a pharmacy, don’t have to navigate the cost of retail drugs, and don’t fall out of contact with their care team. Providers can track whether patients are picking up their refills. When they don’t call, clinic staff calls them. All of this translates to increased medication adherence and improved health outcomes throughout our network.
With three AMP Pharmacies now anchoring the program, the system is more resilient than it has ever been — no longer dependent on a single partner whose closure can immediately cascade to dozens of clinics and thousands of patients.
A Foundation for What Comes Next
The work of rebuilding AMP isn’t finished — it’s ongoing. Prescription volume is at 61% of pre-closure levels, which means there is still ground to recover and more clinics looking to join. At a moment when federal policy changes are expected to push more Virginians into the ranks of the uninsured, demand for free clinic services — and for reliable medication access — is only going to grow.
What the past twelve months have shown is that this network can adapt. Free clinics with the capacity to serve didn’t wait to be asked — they stepped forward.
That spirit of mutual support is what makes the Virginia free clinic community extraordinary. And it’s what Rx Partnership is proud to help coordinate, sustain, and grow.
✨ You can be part of this story. Donations to Rx Partnership directly support programs like AMP — making it possible for clinics across Virginia to keep prescriptions flowing to patients who have nowhere else to turn. Donate today or subscribe to our newsletter to stay connected to the work.