(B)

1. (1) To assist the division 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 division to represent:

   1. (a) the South Carolina Medical Association;
   2. (b) the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education;
   3. (c) the Medical University of South Carolina;
   4. (d) the School of Medicine of the University of South Carolina; and

   5. (e) a fellow in geriatrics or geropsychiatry.

      Board members serve at the pleasure of the division 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 division.

2. (2) The board shall meet as necessary to review program applications and from among these applications recommend program candidates to the division. 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. (1) A physician accepted for the program shall execute a contract with the division in which the physician agrees:

   1. (a) to practice in this State for no fewer than five consecutive years immediately following completion of his or her fellowship;
   2. (b) to accept Medicare and Medicaid patients;
   3. (c) to accept reimbursement or contractual binding rates; and
   4. (d) not to discriminate against patients based on the ability to pay.
2. (2) Upon execution of the contract, the division 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.