(a) The Houston County Board of Health shall designate the services rendered by the county health department for which fees may be charged and shall set the fee to be charged for each service. The health department is hereby authorized to charge and collect such fees. All fees collected shall be in addition to any and all federal, state, and local appropriations. Any fees collected shall be processed in accordance with the recommendations of the Department of Examiners of Public Accounts.
(b) Prior to establishing any fees, a public hearing with proper notice shall be held.
(c) No person shall be denied any service because of that persons’s inability to pay. The county board of health may establish a sliding fee scale based on one’s ability to pay.
(d) This section shall not apply to nor affect any fees otherwise authorized, set, or collected under state or federal law or regulations and shall not affect funding from the state in any way.
(e) All fees collected pursuant to this section are hereby appropriated to the health department which collected such fees.