Frontera Healthcare Network, a community health center and 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is expanding access to primary care, behavioral health, pharmacy services, and walk-in care across the Texas Hill Country, addressing a critical gap in rural healthcare. In a recent episode of Rural Texas Has a Healthcare Crisis - This Nonprofit Is Fixing It | Allison Leftwich, Allison Leftwich, chief strategy officer of Frontera Healthcare Network, explained how the organization now operates seven locations across five communities: three in Fredericksburg, plus Mason, Menard, Junction, and Brady. "In some of those communities we are the only healthcare providers," Leftwich said, while in Fredericksburg the network partners closely with the local hospital and other primary care providers.
The expansion matters because rural residents often face long drives to reach basic medical care. McKenzie noted that for many rural Texans, a trip into town can take 45 minutes, making same-day care and same-day prescriptions essential. Frontera addresses this by offering primary care, behavioral health and psychiatry with a traveling psychiatrist, a pharmacy through the federal 340B discounted drug program that can fill prescriptions while patients are still in the office, walk-in care at its new Fredericksburg clinic, and case management for chronic conditions that includes medication assistance and home delivery.
Leftwich shared an example of a Menard patient with serious health concerns whose provider called daily to secure a referral. "That provider had the flexibility and knows them on such a personal level that they're able to advocate for them in a different way," she said. She credited CEO Mikki Hand, who grew up in the area and still sees patients two days a week, for setting that tone: "she's caring for people who cared for her as a child."
The network is also investing in the rural health workforce by hosting high school interns, welcoming college students for the first time this year, and partnering with Texas A&M to bring medical students in for rotations "to ensure that they understand what rural health care looks like." One provider who rotated with Frontera as a student is returning to join the team full time. Leftwich, who has worked with the INCubatoredu program at Fredericksburg ISD and Hill Country Venture Fest, said the goal is to "give them hope that they could find a career in their hometown."
Asked who should know Frontera is there, Leftwich admitted even she once thought it was pediatrics only, because her own children were patients. "Our goal is to provide affordable health care for everybody in the community," she said, including people who are underinsured or uninsured, so they have "somebody that will advocate and fight for them." The full conversation is available on The Building Texas Show.
