(A) There is established within the Department of Aging the State Loan Repayment Program to reimburse student loan payments of a physician licensed or certified to practice in this State, who has completed a fellowship training program in geriatrics or geropsychiatry accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, is accepted into the program, and contracts with the department as provided in subsection (C) of this section.

(B)(1) To assist the department in selecting program participants, there is established the Physician Advisory Board to review applicants for the repayment reimbursement program. The board consists of five members, one each appointed by the department to represent:

(a) the South Carolina Medical Association;

(b) the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education;

(c) the Medical University of South Carolina;

(d) the School of Medicine of the University of South Carolina; and

(e) a fellow in geriatrics or geropsychiatry.

Board members serve at the pleasure of the department and without compensation, but may receive the mileage, subsistence, and per diem allowed by law for members of boards, committees, and commissions, to be paid from approved accounts of the department.

(2) The board shall meet as necessary to review program applications and from among these applications recommend program candidates to the department. No physician may participate in the program who has not been recommended by the board. In considering applications, the board shall consider demonstrable need and make every effort to select those who intend to continue to practice in this State after completing the program. In order of priority in considering applicants for the program, the board shall consider first South Carolina natives completing fellowship programs in this State, then out-of-state applicants completing fellowships in this State, then South Carolina natives completing out-of-state fellowship programs, and finally out-of-state applicants completing out-of-state fellowships.

(C)(1) A physician accepted for the program shall execute a contract with the department in which the physician agrees:

(a) to practice in this State for no fewer than five consecutive years immediately following completion of his or her fellowship;

(b) to accept Medicare and Medicaid patients;

(c) to accept reimbursement or contractual binding rates; and

(d) not to discriminate against patients based on the ability to pay.

(2) Upon execution of the contract, the department shall reimburse student loan payments made by the physician during the last completed calendar quarter. No more than four physicians a year may participate in the program unless sufficient funding is available to reimburse, in accordance with this section, more than four physicians a year. The total amount that may be reimbursed to one physician is thirty-five thousand dollars multiplied by the number of years of the fellowship completed, prorated for periods less than one year.

(D) If the department determines that the physician is not in compliance with the contract, it shall refer this matter to the Physicians Advisory Board, which shall recommend an appropriate penalty which may be imposed by the department for noncompliance, which must be an amount not to exceed three times the total of reimbursement received plus interest at the prime rate plus ten percent calculated from the date noncompliance was determined.

(E) The department shall prescribe the form of applications and the procedures for reimbursement and may require such information and documentation as it determines appropriate for these applications and reimbursements.

(F) The General Assembly, in the annual general appropriations act, shall appropriate the funds necessary for the operation of the State Loan Repayment Program.