1. (A) The Medical University of South Carolina, the Prisma Health Medical Group-Midlands, and the Prisma Health-University Medical Group are each hereby authorized, as agents of the State of South Carolina, to fulfill the role of Regional Tertiary Level Developmental Evaluation Centers, hereinafter collectively referred to as "developmental evaluation centers."
2. (B) As developmental evaluation centers, the above named institutions shall provide neurodevelopmental evaluation and limited treatment services for individuals up to twenty-one years of age who have a suspected or diagnosed neurodevelopmental disorder or who are referred and accepted for services.
3. (C) Contingent upon sufficient funding, developmental evaluation centers shall work with institutions, state agencies, and other organizations to increase the number of neurodevelopmental professions, increase community provider neurodevelopmental services capacity through provider training programs, provide technical assistance to improve regionalized, community-based, and family centered systems of care for individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, and participate in neurodevelopmental research.
4. (D) For the purposes of this section, "neurodevelopmental disorders" are characterized by disruptions in the functioning neurological system and the brain, leading to difficulties in one or more of cognition, behavior, social interaction, communication, or motor function. Neurodevelopmental disorders primarily manifest early in development, typically during infancy, childhood, or adolescence.

HISTORY: 1996 Act No. 458, Part II, SECTION 86; 2011 Act No. 47, SECTION 3, eff June 7, 2011; 2021 Act No. 49 (S.431), SECTION 1, eff May 17, 2021; 2025 Act No. 3 (S.2), SECTION 16, eff April 28, 2025.

Effect of Amendment

2021 Act No. 49, SECTION 1, in (A), substituted "Medical University of South Carolina, the Prisma Health—University of South Carolina Medical Group, and the Prisma Health—University Medical Group" for "Department of Pediatrics of the Medical University of South Carolina, the University Pediatrics of the University Affiliated Program of the University of South Carolina, and the Children's Hospital of the Greenville Hospital System,".

2025 Act No. 3, SECTION 16, rewrote the section.