State-Aid Cancer Clinics: treatment and follow-up services for indigent patients

State-Aid Cancer Clinics in South Carolina provide outpatient services for medically indigent patients who have a diagnosed cancer or a suspicious Pap smear and who are referred by a physician. The program pays only for outpatient services provided in one of the nine cancer clinic hospitals. Professional services, transportation and inpatient services are not covered. Although program funds are limited, the State-Aid Cancer Clinics served 3,767 patients in FV 1989; 1,104 of these were new patients and 2,663 were for continuing care. The program's operation is dependent upon the interest and support of the medical profession, particularly those physicians who give of their time and talent without pay to treat the medically indigent patients served in the clinics. This truly is a unique partnership in which the public and private sectors share a common goal of reducing unnecessary mortality and morbidity associated with cancer in South Carolina.