Accessible Health Care

In 1993 the Palmetto Project undertook a long-term commitment to provide accessible and affordable health care to traditionally underserved populations in the state. These include not only low-income citizens, but ethnic and cultural groups of all ages whose health needs have been overlooked. We also found that we had a role in addressing some of the public health concerns in which South Carolina ranks among the worst in the country.

 South Carolina Information & Referral Network

In December the Palmetto Project unveiled its long-awaited Healthcare Information & Referral Network that eventually will provide online and toll-free telephone assistance to the 43% of South Carolinians without private health insurance.   The Network assists citizens in quickly finding affordable medical care, free and discounted prescriptions, and local prevention and community-based health education programs. 

The Palmetto Project is implementing a pilot version of this project in Berkeley, Calhoun, Charleston, Clarendon, Dorchester, Fairfield, Kershaw, Lee, Lexington, Newberry, Orangeburg, Richland, Saluda and Sumter counties through June 2006.  We expect to be serving the entire state by December.

The Network, funded with a grant from the state Department of Health & Human Services, adds a critical component to the Palmetto Project’s vision for a more coherent system of health care for uninsured and underinsured South Carolinians.

Nell Killoy, who directs the program, reports that currently the Network provides the following services for residents in the pilot counties:

§         Online and toll-free telephone referral to the state’s healthcare providers who accept Medicaid or see uninsured patients, searchable by such variables as medical specialty, hours of availability, zip code, multi-lingual services, and access to public transportation.

§         Customized listings of local providers who accept Medicaid, charge on a sliding scale, or provide services at no cost.

§         Contact information on hundreds of community prevention and education programs, health support groups, church and community outreach efforts. It also provides assistance in obtaining educational literature describing in simple terms the causes of various health conditions and steps individuals can take in managing them.

§         Links to information on Medicaid and Medicare Part D eligibility, and an online vehicle that searches 475 free and discounted prescription drug programs for which South Carolina residents may be eligible. 

The Network website and provider search engine are now available at www.schealthcare.org.  Those without Internet access can contact our call center at 1-888-998-4646 (toll-free) or 803-787-4191 in the Columbia area.   State Rep. David Mack will chair a statewide advisory board that coordinates Network activities.

Heart & Soul, our nationally recognized initiative in African American health, continued to expand with as many as 600 churches around the state at least participating in the training aspects of our program.  A review of this effort to reduce hypertension shows that over a two year period the blood pressure of the average participant will drop from the “elevated” to “normal” ranges.

While the program continues to focus on prevention and education in cardiovascular disease, many of our volunteer health ministries have broadened their programming to address diabetes, cancer, oral health, and long-term chronic illness.

In 2005, the Palmetto Project entered into a partnership with MUSC’s Stroke Belt Initiative to explore new more effective ways South Carolina might respond to the state’s extraordinarily high rates of stroke.  We are hoping that SBI will become a model program throughout the South for the prevention of strokes.  The multi-faceted approach includes new approaches to education and prevention, along with an analysis of the ways in which 400 participating medical practices treat patients and the various success rates of different treatments.  South Carolina leads the nation in death due to stroke.

We’ve also joined with MUSC’s College of Dental Medicine to study the use of oral health as an indicator of future cardiovascular illness and diabetes among the Gullah populations.  The outcomes of the study could provide significant insights into the treatment of chronic diseases among these South Carolinians, who seem particularly vulnerable. 

AccessNet, a Lowcountry healthcare consortium, organized by the Palmetto Project, got a green light and a $1.1 million Federal grant in October to create a network of “patient navigators” to provide uninsured residents better coordination and access to medical care.  When fully implemented, AccessNet will serve as a single point-of-access to the health care system for the uninsured and underinsured in Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester counties.

“AccessNet will insure a more efficient use of existing resources, more appropriate utilization of services, and a reduction in administrative duplication.  The patient navigators will provide one-on-one support for participants before, during and after treatment, while overseeing the patient’s participation in disease prevention and wellness education activities,” said Laura Morris, director of the Consortium.

She explained that the success of AccessNet would have implications for health care services for the uninsured throughout the state.  “This is definitely out-of-the-box thinking,” she said.  The Palmetto Project was awarded the grant by HHS after being passed over in each of the previous two years.

Among the participants in AccessNet are the Charleston County Medical Society, East Cooper Community Outreach, the Medical University of South Carolina, Our Lady of Mercy Community Outreach, Trident DHEC, Charleston-Dorchester Mental Health, and Franklin C. Fetter, St. James-Santee, and Sea Islands Community Health Centers.

The South Carolina Immunization Project

Immunization Rates Bolstered by Public-Private Partnerships.  The Palmetto Project’s nationally recognized approach to raising immunization rates continued to boost the state’s national leadership status in 2005. 

Our approach is to develop community-based, public-private partnerships to increase the number of South Carolina children who are fully immunized and reduce the number of school days missed by students for failure to be up-to-date with their shots.  State law requires school administrators to deny admission to children who are behind in their immunizations.  Day care providers are under similar restrictions.

Twelve years ago, when the project was launched, our focus was on toddlers. After the CDC announced that South Carolina led the nation in this age group, we broadened our campaign to include all children under six and seniors. This year, because of alarming rates of preventable disease among adolescents and the availability of new vaccines, we’ve added teenagers to our target population.

The Tri-County Immunization Coalition, comprised of forty businesses, public agencies, civic groups, and school districts in Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties, has been the most active local campaign in the state.  In 2005 alone, the Coalition’s activities reached over 16,000 households with at least some members considered to be at risk. Since the Coalition was created, immunization rates in the target counties have increased by more than 50%.

More Smiling Faces in Beautiful Places, an oral health initiative funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has provided thousands of low-income children as young as one-year-old with dental treatments that could reduce future cavities by 80 percent. The three-year pilot project, which is likely to have national implications, ends in the spring of 2006. 

Andrea Bell, MSF Field Coordinator for counties in the Pee Dee, explained that purpose of the program is to explore new ways to deliver oral health services to children of low-income families in medically underserved rural areas.  “We are trying to show that creative, early intervention can keep these children healthy while saving the health care system – and in this case, Medicaid -- thousands of dollars”.  

South Carolina was one of only four states chosen as for the pilot program.  Participating counties include Marion, Marlboro, Chesterfield, Williamsburg, Saluda, Greenwood, Hampton, Colleton, and McCormick.  Our partners in this public-private collaboration included DHEC, the state Department of Education, and a number of other state agencies.

Carolina Hearing Aid Bank, one of our newest initiatives, is aimed at providing free or affordable hearing aids to low-income South Carolinians whose hearing loss prevents them from being able to go back to work, attend school, or participate more fully in their lives.  Through a special arrangement with a national manufacturer, we can purchase hearing aids at a significant discount.  Combined with credits for recycling used hearing aids and volunteer services from audiologists, we are actually able to able to obtain new hearing aids for our recipients at less than 25% the cost.

Parishioners at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in North Charleston created the program.  You can help sustain this work by making a donation to:

Palmetto Project /CHAB

1031 Chuck Dawley Blvd., Suite 5

Charleston, SC 29464  

The Pee Dee Rural Access Initiative is allowing us to test out our new patient navigator model in the rural areas of the Pee Dee counties.  This concept is based on lessons we’ve learned over the past ten years in reducing rates of stroke and cardiovascular disease.  A patient navigator gives us the opportunity to walk people through the health care system, support them in making lifestyle changes, and assist them in following doctors’ orders. This program is funded through the state Office of Rural Health.