Where Houston Women Can Get a Free Mammogram in October 2026
Every active screening program in Harris County, with real eligibility cutoffs, phone numbers, neighborhood locations, and answers to what happens if they find something.
Every active screening program in Harris County, with real eligibility cutoffs, phone numbers, neighborhood locations, and answers to what happens if they find something.
October is the one month when mammogram access genuinely expands for uninsured and low-income women in Houston. Programs that run year-round open additional slots. Mobile units park at community centers and church lots that wouldn’t normally see them. Some walk-in events disappear the moment November arrives. If you’ve been putting this off, stop waiting.
This is not a Breast Cancer Awareness Month roundup. It doesn’t tell you early detection saves lives and then leave you to figure out the rest. It names every confirmed program operating in Harris County this October, states eligibility plainly, gives you numbers to call and what to say when someone picks up, identifies which neighborhoods have local access so you’re not driving to the Medical Center, and answers the question almost every other piece ignores: what happens if they find something.
One note: phone numbers, income cutoffs, and scheduling formats change. Every entry below was researched for currency, but call ahead before you show up anywhere. October mobile schedules in particular can shift. The contact table at the end is your first stop.
Who Qualifies Before You Even Call
Most free and discounted mammography programs in Houston operate under the same federal framework. The National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) funds much of what’s available, and knowing the baseline rules saves time on the phone.
Age. The NBCCEDP covers women 40 to 64 who are uninsured or underinsured and meet income requirements. Some programs screen women as young as 30 with documented family history or other clinical risk factors. Women 65 and older typically move to Medicare, which covers annual screening mammograms at no cost. If that’s your situation, call the program anyway — several local sites can help you understand that benefit even if you’re not enrolled yet.
Income. The threshold that recurs most often is 200% of the federal poverty level. Some programs use a sliding scale above that floor. Federally Qualified Health Centers like Legacy Community Health and Vecino Health Centers use a sliding-fee schedule across their whole patient base — a mammogram may cost nothing or a small amount depending on your income. Call each program to confirm current 2026 thresholds; these numbers do get updated.
Insurance status. Being uninsured is not a disqualifier. At most of these programs, it’s the primary qualifier. If you have Medicaid, most sites will bill it and see you at no out-of-pocket cost. If you have private insurance with a deductible so high that a mammogram is effectively unaffordable, ask explicitly when you call — several programs have discretion to serve underinsured patients.
Immigration status is not asked and does not affect eligibility at any program in this guide. Legacy, Vecino, and Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast were built specifically to serve undocumented patients and do not report to immigration authorities.
The Program Directory
Harris Health System — Gold Card Mammography
Harris Health is the public hospital system for Harris County — Ben Taub, LBJ, and a network of community health centers. It’s the largest safety-net provider in the region and the backbone of free care for uninsured county residents.
Community health centers are in Baytown, Pasadena, Acres Home, Greenspoint, and Kashmere Gardens, plus facilities near the Medical Center. Not all centers perform mammography on-site; some refer within the system for imaging. You must be a Harris County resident, uninsured or underinsured with income below 200% of the federal poverty level. The Gold Card — Harris Health’s financial assistance program — is the entry point and requires income verification. Age eligibility follows the standard 40–64 NBCCEDP range, with clinical exceptions.
Here’s what to know before you show up: Harris Health routes mammograms through a primary care provider visit first. If you don’t have an existing Harris Health provider, you start with a new patient appointment at a community health center. Plan for that visit to happen before the mammogram is scheduled. It’s an extra step but not an impossible one — and Harris Health periodically runs stand-alone screening events in October where that step may be compressed.
Call Harris Health Patient Access at 713-634-1110. Spanish-speaking staff are available at most locations. Interpreter services cover other languages. Harris Health’s established policy is that it serves patients regardless of immigration status — confirm this remains in effect when you call.
The Rose
The Rose is the most specialized organization on this list: a Houston nonprofit dedicated entirely to breast health, with its own mammography centers and a patient navigation program. For uninsured women who need a direct path to a mammogram, it’s the simplest option in the city.
No referral required. No existing patient relationship. No Gold Card. You call, you schedule, you come in. That sounds obvious, but it isn’t — real barriers are baked into multi-step systems, and The Rose removes most of them.
The Rose accepts uninsured women 40 and older, plus underinsured women for whom the out-of-pocket cost is a barrier. No immigration status requirement. Appointments book fast in October; call early in the month. Some community outreach events accept walk-ins — check therose.org for the October mobile schedule, which is updated as locations are confirmed. Spanish-language services are available; confirm staff availability for your language when you book.
The Rose also runs a patient navigation program specifically for women who get abnormal results. Navigators help connect women to diagnostic follow-up and, where possible, to treatment resources. Ask at intake about the navigation program — it’s one of the things that makes The Rose worth knowing about even if you end up screened somewhere else.
Legacy Community Health
Legacy is one of Houston’s largest FQHCs, with more than 25 care sites across the region — Montrose, Fifth Ward, Southwest Houston, Baytown, Spring Branch, Northside, Pasadena, and more. The Southwest Houston clinic has Vietnamese-speaking staff, which matters a lot for that dense corridor and rarely gets mentioned in coverage like this.
Legacy serves all patients on a sliding-fee scale regardless of income or insurance status. At or below 100% of the federal poverty level, services are free. Between 100–200% FPL, a nominal fee may apply. No immigration status requirement.
Because Legacy is a primary care home, the standard pathway is a PCP appointment that generates a mammogram order. In practice, this can often happen in a single visit — establish care and get the referral the same day. Call ahead and ask whether that’s possible given October scheduling. Main line: 832-548-5000. Spanish-speaking staff are standard at most locations; Vietnamese-language capacity at Southwest Houston; telephone interpreter services for other languages.
Susan G. Komen Houston Affiliate and Funded Partners
Komen Houston doesn’t run mammography clinics directly. It funds community organizations and clinical partners — including Harris Health, Legacy, and other FQHCs — to provide screening and navigation services to underserved women in the region.
Call the helpline at 1-877-465-6636. Navigators identify which funded partner near you has current capacity and connect you. You don’t apply to Komen separately; you go through the funded partner, and Komen’s grant covers your cost on the back end. The helpline staff are genuinely useful to talk to if you don’t know where to start.
Komen also funds patient navigators embedded at some partner sites — people with specific training to help women with abnormal findings understand their options and access follow-up care. If you’re screened through a Komen-funded partner, ask at intake whether a navigator is available. Check komen.org or call the helpline for current October 2026 events.
UTHealth Houston
UTHealth — the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston — operates outreach screening programs through its clinical departments. October typically brings dedicated community screening events alongside standard clinical services, primarily based in the Medical Center with some reach into surrounding communities.
Community screening events target uninsured and low-income women meeting NBCCEDP criteria (ages 40–64, at or below 200% FPL). Referrals are generally not required for outreach events — walk-in or pre-registration is the model. For standard clinical appointments, a referral or new patient intake process applies. Call to clarify which pathway you’re entering before you show up.
Contact UTHealth at 713-500-4472 (verify current number). For October outreach events, check uth.edu or call the UTHealth Community Health program directly. Spanish interpretation and Medical Center interpreter services for other languages are available.
MD Anderson Cancer Prevention Center
MD Anderson’s Cancer Prevention Center offers screening to the general public, separate from its treatment mission. Community screening programs, including mammography, are offered on a sliding scale or at no cost for eligible patients. Historically, the program has served uninsured women meeting NBCCEDP criteria.
MD Anderson is also a fee-for-service institution — which is worth stating plainly. When you call, ask specifically about the community benefit or financial assistance pathway, not general screening scheduling. Those are two different conversations, and the distinction matters.
If a finding warrants follow-up, the practical advantage is a direct pathway into MD Anderson’s diagnostic services. Ask at intake what the follow-up protocol looks like for patients who entered through the community screening program. Contact MD Anderson Cancer Prevention Center at 713-792-2553 (verify current number). Interpreter services are available; confirm capacity for your specific language when you call.
Harris County Public Health — NBCCEDP-Funded Sites
Harris County Public Health administers Texas’s NBCCEDP-funded program, known in Texas as the Breast and Cervical Cancer Services program, run through the Texas Department of State Health Services. This program funds screening at clinical sites throughout the county for women who meet federal eligibility criteria.
Call Harris County Public Health at 713-274-2500 and ask specifically about breast cancer screening resources and NBCCEDP-funded sites near you. You can also contact Texas DSHS Breast and Cervical Cancer Services at 1-800-335-8957.
Beyond the initial screening mammogram, NBCCEDP funds some diagnostic follow-up — including diagnostic mammograms and certain biopsy procedures for eligible women who get an abnormal result. Most people don’t know this exists. It’s covered in the follow-up section below, but flag it here because it affects which site you choose.
Vecino Health Centers
Vecino is a separate FQHC network from Legacy, with clinics concentrated in north and northwest Houston — Hardy Yards, Northline, and surrounding areas. The organization serves a heavily Latino patient population and built its intake model around serving patients regardless of immigration or insurance status.
Like Legacy, Vecino uses the sliding-fee model. No immigration status requirement. A same-visit PCP-to-mammogram-order pathway is possible at some locations — call ahead and ask directly. Main line: 713-699-5000. Spanish-speaking staff throughout.
Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast
Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast provides clinical breast exams and referrals for mammography but doesn’t perform mammograms on-site. It’s an important access point, particularly for women who are undocumented, uninsured, or reluctant to enter a larger health system — and that reluctance is understandable. A clinical breast exam at PPGC, offered on a sliding scale, can generate a referral to a screening partner. Current phone numbers and clinic locations are at ppgulf.org. Spanish-speaking staff available.
Houston Methodist and Memorial Hermann — Community Benefit Programs
Both operate community benefit mammography programs tied to their nonprofit status. These are less consistently advertised than the FQHC and dedicated nonprofit options above, which makes them easy to overlook. Eligibility criteria and capacity vary by facility and year.
When you call, ask specifically for the “financial assistance” or “community benefit” mammography program — not general scheduling. Treat these as supplemental options rather than the first call you make. Confirm current details directly via their websites.
Free Screenings Outside the Medical Center
A persistent misconception: you have to get to the Texas Medical Center. You don’t, and for a lot of Houston that would be a serious barrier even if everything else lined up.
North Houston, Greenspoint, Acres Homes. Harris Health’s Acres Home Community Health Center provides primary care and can generate mammogram referrals within the Harris Health system. Legacy’s Northside clinic serves this corridor as well.
Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens. Legacy Community Health’s Fifth Ward clinic handles primary care including breast health services on the sliding-fee scale. The Rose conducts outreach events in this area in October — check therose.org for the calendar.
Alief and Southwest Houston. Legacy’s Southwest Houston clinic is the primary fixed access point, and the Vietnamese-speaking staff there is a genuinely important resource for this dense, diverse corridor. It doesn’t come up often enough. The Rose’s mobile unit has historically served community events here during October.
Pasadena, Baytown, East Harris County. Harris Health community health centers in Baytown and Pasadena, plus Legacy’s Pasadena location, are the primary access points for the eastern half of the county.
Katy and West Houston. This is the thinnest part of the map, and I’d rather say that directly than pretend the coverage is uniform. Katy proper sits in Fort Bend County and falls outside the Harris Health Gold Card system. For Harris County residents in west Houston, the closest Harris Health and Legacy sites are in the Spring Branch and Energy Corridor area. The Rose’s mobile schedule sometimes includes west Houston events in October. The Komen helpline (1-877-465-6636) is the most useful call for anyone in this fringe area who isn’t sure what’s available.
The Rose’s mobile mammography unit covers community sites, parking lots, and neighborhood locations across Houston, especially in October. The schedule is posted at therose.org and typically confirmed two to three weeks out. If you’re in an area without a nearby fixed clinic, check the mobile schedule first.
Do You Need a Referral? The Straight Answer
Harris Health. Yes. The standard pathway is through a Harris Health primary care provider, who orders the mammogram. Start with a new patient appointment at a community health center. Plan for at least one visit before your mammogram is scheduled. Harris Health periodically runs stand-alone screening events during October where this step may be compressed.
Legacy and Vecino. The standard pathway runs through a primary care visit, but at many FQHC locations you can establish care and get a mammogram order in the same appointment, especially if you call ahead and explain exactly why you’re coming. When you call, say: “I need to establish care and get a referral for a mammogram at the same visit — is that possible, and how do I book that?” A scheduler should be able to answer that directly.
The Rose. No referral. No prior patient relationship. Call, schedule, show up. Easiest pathway in the city for an uninsured woman who needs a mammogram and doesn’t have a regular doctor.
Mobile and outreach events. Walk-in, no referral required. The Rose, Komen-funded partners, and UTHealth community events are designed specifically to reach women who don’t have a primary care relationship.
When you call any program: “I’m uninsured, I’m [age], and I need a mammogram. Do I need a referral or an existing patient relationship, or can I schedule directly?” Any scheduler should be able to answer that in one sentence.
What to Bring
Photo ID is required everywhere. A Texas driver’s license, state ID, or passport from any country works at all programs. A matrícula consular — the identification card issued by Mexican consulates — is accepted at many of these programs; call ahead to confirm at your chosen site.
At Harris Health specifically, bring proof of Harris County residency: a utility bill, lease, or piece of official mail with your name and county address, dated within the last 60 days. Also bring income documentation — pay stubs, a tax return, or an employer letter. No income? You may be asked to sign a self-attestation.
At Legacy and Vecino, income documentation is requested but self-attestation is generally accepted. You won’t be turned away for not having a pay stub.
Prior mammogram records are useful but not required at most sites. If you have them, include the facility name and approximate year — radiologists use prior images for comparison, and it can affect interpretation.
If you have insurance — even a plan with a very high deductible — bring your insurance card. Some programs will bill it for whatever they can recover and waive the rest.
The programs with the most flexible intake, fewest required documents, and greatest willingness to work with patients who can’t produce paperwork: The Rose, Legacy, and Vecino. If the document question is worrying you, start there.
If You Don’t Speak English
Spanish-speaking staff are available at Harris Health (most locations), Legacy (most locations), Vecino (all locations), Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, and The Rose. You can begin your call in Spanish and be connected to a Spanish-speaking scheduler at all of these organizations. You don’t need English to access any program in this guide.
Vietnamese-language staff are available at Legacy’s Southwest Houston clinic. This is a specific and meaningful resource for the large Vietnamese-speaking community in southwest Houston. When calling Legacy, ask for the Southwest Houston clinic (832-548-5000) and request a Vietnamese-speaking staff member.
For other languages, Harris Health, Legacy, UTHealth, and MD Anderson all have telephone interpreter services. When you call to schedule, request an interpreter for your language. Federal law (Title VI) requires that healthcare providers receiving federal funds provide language access, and every program in this guide receives some form of federal funding. Say: “I need an interpreter for [language]. Can you arrange that for my appointment?”
On immigration status: every program in this guide was selected in part because immigration status doesn’t affect eligibility. Legacy, Vecino, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, and The Rose were built with undocumented patients in mind and do not share patient information with immigration enforcement. Harris Health, as a county public hospital system, has an established policy of providing care to all county residents regardless of status — confirm this remains in effect when you call. If you are asked about immigration status at any of these sites, you are not required to answer, and your care cannot legally be conditioned on that answer under the terms of these programs.
If They Find Something
This is the question Breast Cancer Awareness Month content almost never answers.
A screening mammogram is a first step, not a diagnosis. A callback means a recommendation for additional imaging — not a cancer diagnosis. But it does mean you need a follow-up diagnostic mammogram, possibly an ultrasound or biopsy, before anyone can tell you what you’re dealing with. That’s where coverage gaps become dangerous, and where women fall through.
The federal NBCCEDP doesn’t stop at the screening mammogram. For women who screen positive and are eligible, the program funds diagnostic mammograms, ultrasounds, and biopsy procedures. It also provides a pathway to the Texas Medicaid Breast and Cervical Cancer Program (BCCP), which can cover cancer treatment for women diagnosed while participating in an NBCCEDP-funded program. Most people have never heard of this. To access it, you need to have been screened through an NBCCEDP-funded site — which includes Harris County Public Health-funded locations, Legacy, Vecino, and other certified providers. This is one practical reason the site you choose matters, not just the mammogram itself.
The Rose maintains active case management for women who receive abnormal results. Navigators help you understand what the next step actually is — scheduling a diagnostic mammogram, finding a biopsy facility, connecting with a social worker. Ask at intake what follow-up support is available after results. Where Komen Houston funds navigators at partner sites, those navigators bridge the gap between a concerning result and the next clinical appointment.
Before your appointment, ask this question: “If my mammogram is abnormal, what happens next, and is the follow-up covered?” A good program answers this clearly. If the answer is “we’ll give you a referral and you’ll need to arrange follow-up on your own,” that’s honest — and it means you should also have The Rose’s navigation program, the NBCCEDP follow-up pathway through Harris County Public Health, and Komen’s helpline (1-877-465-6636) bookmarked before you walk in.
The real gap: not every free screening program includes follow-up navigation or a guaranteed pathway to covered diagnostic services. A mammogram at a UTHealth outreach event or a hospital community benefit day may not come with a navigator or a clear path to covered diagnostics. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go. But know in advance what support exists after the screening ends, and have the follow-up resources ready before you need them.
How to Book This Week
Verify all phone numbers directly before calling — numbers change. Program details were confirmed as of research date; call ahead to verify October 2026 schedules.
| Program | Phone (verify) | Web | Booking method |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Rose | Confirm at therose.org | therose.org | Online or by phone; check site for October mobile schedule |
| Harris Health / Gold Card | 713-634-1110 | harrishealth.org | Call to establish care; Gold Card application required |
| Legacy Community Health | 832-548-5000 | legacycommunityhealth.org | Call or patient portal; same-day PCP-to-referral possible |
| Vecino Health Centers | 713-699-5000 | vecinohealth.org | Call; walk-in for new patients at some sites |
| Susan G. Komen Houston | 1-877-465-6636 | komen.org | Call helpline; navigator connects you to funded partner |
| UTHealth Houston | 713-500-4472 (verify) | uth.edu | Call for outreach event schedule; check site for October events |
| MD Anderson Cancer Prevention | 713-792-2553 (verify) | mdanderson.org | Call; ask specifically for community benefit/financial assistance pathway |
| Harris County Public Health | 713-274-2500 | hcphtx.org | Call; ask for NBCCEDP-funded breast screening referral |
| Texas DSHS (statewide) | 1-800-335-8957 | dshs.texas.gov | Call; ask for Breast and Cervical Cancer Services provider near you |
| Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast | Confirm at ppgulf.org | ppgulf.org | Call or online; clinical breast exam and mammogram referral |
| Houston Methodist | Confirm at houstonmethodist.org | houstonmethodist.org | Call; ask for financial assistance mammography program specifically |
| Memorial Hermann | Confirm at memorialhermann.org | memorialhermann.org | Call; ask for financial assistance mammography program specifically |
One more thing: Houston is in late hurricane season through the end of October. If a storm disrupts scheduling — especially for mobile units parked in lots — call the program directly to confirm your appointment is still on. The Rose and Harris Health both have weather disruption protocols, but the responsibility to confirm falls on the patient, particularly for mobile events without a fixed facility.
Not sure where to start? Go to therose.org or call the Komen helpline at 1-877-465-6636. Both are staffed to answer exactly the question you have and direct you to the right program. You don’t need to know in advance which program you qualify for. That’s what the call is for.
CityDesk Houston covers local business, health access, and neighborhood affairs in Houston and Harris County. If you have information about an additional program that should be included in this directory, contact our editorial desk.
