Innovative Solutions Provide Access to Health Care

News headlines paint a bleak picture of rising health care costs in America, and the struggle is real for personal budgets in South Carolina. Here in the Palmetto State, monthly health insurance premiums have risen 120% since 2013.

Thankfully, there are a growing number of solutions for South Carolinians who are uninsured or underinsured, and Palmetto Promise is working hard to protect access to these innovations. 

Volunteer Care is one such opportunity providing patients with unencumbered access to health care. Simply put, legislation passed in June of 2016 removes obstacles for medical providers in South Carolina who wish to volunteer their services to provide quality health care to those who need it most.

In addition to the patient benefit, physicians benefit from Volunteer Care as well. Licensed health care providers receive one hour of continuing medical education credit per one hour of rendered volunteer care up to 25% of the total amount of credits required for annual licensure.

Palmetto Promise Institute was an advocate of Volunteer Care and educated lawmakers about the potential benefits this law could provide to uninsured and underinsured South Carolina residents. Why? Because it works. 

Volunteers in Medicine, a clinic on Hilton Head Island, serves as a powerful, home-grown example of how this type of care can change lives. The clinic provides free health services to the uninsured, scheduling more than 30,000 patient visits in a year.

NBC Nightly News recently visited Volunteers in Medicine to report on this South Carolina clinic’s highly successful health care solution.

You can watch that report below: