The founder of the Knoxville-based charity Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corps says his nonprofit is hamstrung by laws preventing medical volunteers from crossing state lines.
Stan Brock told the Bristol Herald Courier RAM has treated more than half-a-million patients since 1992, but it could serve even more if state laws were changed.
Brock said the group recently went to Joplin, Mo., with a mobile eyeglass lab. But they were not allowed to make free glasses because their optometrists and opticians were not licensed in the state of Missouri.
Brock said the laws are designed as "turf protection," but his charity efforts pose no threat to traditional medical providers.
Patients attending RAM clinics wait hours in all kinds of weather to receive help.