The Hospital Service Program for the Indigent shall be administered by the State Board of Health through the State Health Department. The board shall, subject to the provisions of this article, promulgate and adopt such rules and regulations as may be necessary for the proper administration of this article, and any such rule or regulation promulgated and adopted by the board shall be binding on any county participating in the Hospital Service Program for the Indigent and shall be complied with by all local agencies or persons responsible for the enforcement of any part of this article. The rules and regulations of the board shall include, among other things:

1. (1) Requirements concerning any reports to be made to the board by any county participating in the program or by any participating hospital in any such county, including both medical and financial reports;
2. (2) Criteria for acceptance of participating hospitals;
3. (3) Method of determining need for hospitalization of applicants for indigent hospital service;
4. (4) Method of determining reimbursable costs for indigent hospital service in each participating hospital, but such costs shall not include any payment for professional medical services and shall, in no event, exceed the nonprofit basic per diem costs of hospitalization in such hospital; and
5. (5) Methods and standards of determining indigency, as the term is defined by Section 22-21-210.

(Acts 1957, No. 394, p. 539, §3.)