(a) The department shall maintain a community-based screening process designed to provide alternatives to hospitalization, minimize length of confinement, promote speedy return to the community, and maximize each service recipient's ability to remain in a community setting.

(b) As part of the system the commissioner shall designate individuals to serve as mandatory prescreening agents. The commissioner may base designation on criteria consistent with § 33-6-427 and may set limits on an agent's authority. The commissioner may decline to designate a person who satisfies the requirements of § 33-6-427. The commissioner may remove authority as a mandatory pre-screening agent from a person without cause. Designation of a person as a mandatory prescreening agent does not vest any property right, and limitations on authority and removal of designation as a mandatory prescreening agent are not governed by the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, compiled in title 4, chapter 5, or by title 8, chapter 30.

(c) An agent has only the authority designated by the commissioner and, if the agent is not a physician, the authority of the agent terminates if the person no longer satisfies § 33-6-427. An agent's authority is valid in connection with hospitalization of a privately funded person at a private hospital or treatment resource only if the private hospital or treatment resource files notice of acceptance of the designated person's authority with the commissioner.

(d) When performing the duties authorized by this section an individual agent shall be considered to be a state employee pursuant to § 8-42-101(3)(D). When performing the duties authorized by this section an individual agent shall not be considered as an employee of such agent's regular employer, and the agent's regular employer, whether public or private, shall not be held liable in any damages to any person or government entity in a civil action for injury, death or loss to person or property that allegedly results from the actions of the individual agent while acting as a state employee pursuant to this section.