2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-FOUR - Health and Sanitation (§§ 1 — 15010) › PART VII - Hospitals, Institutions and Health Programs (§§ 3001 — 3891) › Chapter 149A - BIDA Act (§§ 3561 — 3585) › § 3562 - Department of Health—Responsibilities

(a) Through its pediatric centers, which provide services to children and youth with special needs under the age of 21 years, within the early intervention service system, the Department shall be responsible for the identification, diagnostic, intervention, and treatment of minors with an autism spectrum disorder, since their birth up until they reach the age of twenty-one (21) years. For such purposes, the Department of Health shall have an interdisciplinary team composed of three (3) or more health professionals from different fields including, but not limited to: one psychiatrist or clinical psychologist, and one physician, along with therapeutic service providers, to wit: occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech-language pathologists, and case managers, among others. These shall use evidence-based intervention practices. Each case shall be referred and managed by a case manager who shall be responsible for coordinating all the services and referrals of minors with an autism spectrum disorder.
(b) The Department shall develop, in coordination with other agencies, protocols for the reevaluation and follow-up of persons with an autism spectrum disorder that are tailored to the needs present in each stage of development. The case manager shall be responsible for coordinating with the Department of Education and the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration, in accordance with the corresponding stage, the transition process, as defined in this chapter, to guarantee the continuity of services provided to persons with an autism spectrum disorder.
(c) The Department shall create a Registry of Persons with autism spectrum disorder, which shall include a Monitoring System that includes data on the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder. Every service provider, agency, or instrumentality of the Government of Puerto Rico offering services to persons with an autism spectrum disorder shall report data in connection with said population. The Department of Health shall submit to the Legislative Assembly a report about this registry on March of every year.
(d) The Department of Health, through the Office of Regulation and Certification of Healthcare Professionals, shall ensure that healthcare professionals and health service organizations that provide services to the autism spectrum disorder population meet the requirements of this chapter as a condition for license renewal.
(e) The Department shall establish in each Pediatric Center an Autism Spectrum Disorder Information Center that provides parents and professionals with access to pertinent information, including the Registry of Healthcare Professionals and Healthcare Professionals certified by the Department of Health. Likewise, it is hereby authorized to enter into collaborative agreements with healthcare service organizations to join efforts to develop secondary and tertiary education components in said entities.
(f) The Department shall develop a mechanism to monitor the services rendered by providers as well as the quality thereof. Moreover, it shall develop a tool to evaluate the quality of the services rendered by providers, thus providing for the analysis of the levels of user satisfaction. The results furnished by this mechanism shall be taken into account as part of the conditions for license renewal.
(g) The Department shall create a grievance and provisional remedy system based on the recommendations made by the Steering Committee, which shall establish a reasonable waiting time to conduct evaluations and begin therapies or treatments so that the parents of persons with an autism spectrum disorder have the resources to claim services in the event of noncompliance with the established timetable.
(h) The Department shall create a training and support program for the families of persons with autism spectrum disorder, which offers conferences, workshops, and training about the autism spectrum disorder, as well as behavioral, medical, and therapeutic interventions, and psychological support, among others.
History —Sep. 4, 2012, No. 220, § 4.