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Menocal Family Practice
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Dr. Julio J. Menocal had one goal when he started his family medicine practice more than 16 years ago.
“My main purpose was vaccinating the children of undocumented immigrants,” said the physician, who earned his doctor of medicine degree from Universidad Javeriana School of Medicine, in Bogota, Colombia, and completed his internship and residency at Providence Hospital in Washington, D.C.
After practicing medicine in Frederick County for over 20 years, Dr. Menocal observed that the area did not have enough physicians to serve its large community of Hispanic immigrants. To fill that gap, he founded Menocal Family Practice, which provides affordable managed primary healthcare to patients with no insurance, those who have Medicaid and Medicare, and those who have commercial insurance.
“Everybody gets the same excellent healthcare they deserve, regardless of what kind of insurance they have,” explained Michelle Restani, the practice’s provider coordinator who also serves as office manager and handles marketing, advertising, and social media.
The Affordable Care Act and its Medicaid expansion to adults with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level have contributed to the success of the practice.
“Every commercial insurance patient helps cover the cost of oneand-a-half medical assistance visits,” Dr. Menocal pointed out.
Most of the recently relocated and expanded office’s patients live in the Golden Mile corridor. The practice has four additional offices – in Salisbury, Elkridge, Pine Heights, and as of four months ago, Hagerstown, they all share Dr. Menocal’s main objectives: to achieve high vaccination rates in children and underserved populations; and to attain the best clinical outcomes for diabetic adults. One of Dr. Menocal’s primary focuses has been on vaccinating children enrolled in the Maryland Children’s Health Program program. As a result, the practice has administered more than 115,000 free vaccines, increasing the vaccination rate of the community’s children from 13% to 58%. Based on his performance in the vaccine rollout and administration, the State of Maryland Covid 19 Vaccination Equity Task Force chose Dr. Menocal to staff and run several vaccination clinics during the pandemic, resulting in more than 14,000 Covid 19 vaccines administered to members of the Frederick community and the City of Baltimore. Along with six staff nurse practitioners in the Frederick office, Dr. Menocal provides wellness exams and preventive health care for all ages, allergy testing and immunotherapy, and control and management for diabetics and people with other chronic diseases.
