Establishes the electronic death registration system

Summary of provisions

Section 1 of the bill adds a new section 4148 to the public health law to create the electronic death registration system as follows:

* Subdivision 1 authorizes and directs the Department of Health (DOH) to design, implement and maintain an electronic death registration system for collecting, storing, recording, transmitting, amending, correcting and authentication information as necessary and appropriate to complete a death registration, and to generate documents in relation to a death occurring in this state. This subdivision also provides that the $20 payment authorized by this legislation on each burial and removal permit issued to a licensed funeral director or undertaker shall be used by the department for costs associated with the electronic death registration system. Further, this subdivision reaffirms and clarifies that the existing duties of, as well as remuneration received by, local registrars in accepting and filing certificates of death and issuing burial and removal permits pursuant to any statute or regulation shall be maintained, and not altered or abridged in any way by this act, reflecting the important role of local registrars to ensure accurate issuance, accounting, recordkeeping and accessibility for the communities they serve.

* Subdivision 2 provides that commencing on the implementation date, all deaths occurring within the state must be registered using the electronic death registration system. This subdivision also provides that electronic death registration may be phased in

* Subdivision 3 provides that commencing on the implementation date, all persons required to register a death or file a certificate of death shall have access to the electronic death registration system for the purpose of entering information required to execute, complete and file a certificate of death or to retrieve such information, or to generate documentation from the system. All existing laws relating to confidentiality shall apply to information maintained in this system.

* Subdivision 4 provides that commencing on January 1, 2015, a digital signature may be used to satisfy any signature requirement

* Subdivision 5 provides that licensed funeral directors and undertakers shall support the establishment and maintenance of the electronic death registration system through a $20 payment tendered for each burial and removal permit issued. This subdivision also provides that such payment shall be considered a cost of operation and cannot be passed on to the consumer.

Section 2 amends subdivision 1 of section 4100-a of the public health law and adds a new subdivision 5 to this section to include, after the

implementation date of the electronic death registration system, an electronically produced print of the original death certificate within the definition of "certified copy." This section also adds a definition for the term "electronic death registration system."

Section 3 amends subdivision 1 of section 4140 of the public health law to provide that a required certificate of death shall be filed electronically.

Section 4 amends section 4141-a of the public health law to provide that hospital administrators shall sign and submit death certificates electronically.

Section 5 adds a new subdivision (e) to section 4142 of the public health law to provide that funeral directors shall submit death certificates electronically.

Section 6 amends paragraph (b) of subdivision 2 and subdivisions 3 and 5 of section 4144 of the public health law to make conforming changes.

Section 7 amends subdivisions 1 and 4 of section 4161 of the public health law to make conforming changes.

Section 8 amends subdivision 3 of section 4171 of the public health law to make conforming changes.

Section 9 provides the effective date.

Justification

Death certificates are used in New York State, as in the rest of the United States, for administrative and public health purposes They are universally recognized as the primary source of death information, but registration processes remain labor intensive, employ disparate and limited automated procedures and require several professionals at different locations to complete each of the more than 95,000 death certificates registered each year in New York State outside the City of New York.

Since the origination of civil vital records registration, death certificate completion has mostly remained the province of funeral directors, with physicians and frequently medical examiners and coroners, providing cause and manner of death information. Manual certificate preparation, including the personal delivery of these official records to physicians for signature, extensive and costly travel by funeral directors to file certificates, and the labor-intensive processing of paper records with local registrars and at the NYS Department of Health's (DOH) Office of Vital Records all contribute to slowing registration and delaying the availability of death data.

The responsibility of coordinating the current manual process of ensuring the completion and filing of each death certificate falls upon funeral directors. This process is exacerbated by the statutory requirement that each death certificate must be properly completed and filed with the appropriate local registrar within 72 hours after the subject person's death. The very cumbersome and time-consuming nature of this process needlessly takes valuable time away from a funeral director that could, and should, be dedicated to his or her foremost

responsibility - serving the needs of those who have just suffered the loss of a cherished family member or other loved one. In addition, the current process unnecessarily raises operating costs for small business funeral homes and their customers, indirectly through lost productivity and directly through higher gasoline and other motor vehicle expenses.

Although commencement of an electronic death registration system was begun by New York State more than a decade ago, the program was soon abandoned. However, work on such a system was continued for birth certificates, which have been processed electronically for many years. Laudably, DOH began the process once again within the last few years, only to see it come to a halt early in 2011 due to the State's severe fiscal challenges.

Licensed funeral directors and undertakers have expressed their strong interest in partnering with DOH to support the establishment and maintenance of such a system through a $20 payment to be tendered for each burial and removal permit issued, the proceeds from which shall be used by DOH solely for costs associated with the creation and maintenance of the electronic death registration system. The industry has specifically asked for, and strongly supports, this payment and, even with its imposition, enactment of an electronic death registration system would result in a significant net savings for funeral directors and undertakers in the state.

It is well past time for New York State to join the ranks of the 41 other states, the City of New York and the District of Columbia in adopting an Electronic Death Registration System. The enactment of this legislation would accomplish this long-sought goal and, in recognition of the State's dire fiscal constraints, establish a dedicated funding stream like that used in California, New Jersey and other states to finance the construction, implementation and maintenance of such a system.

Legislative history

S.6256-A - Part C of 2012

Fiscal implications

This proposal is estimated to generate revenue of $2.2 million in the current fiscal year, increasing to $2.9 million when fully annualized. These funds would be used to pay for the establishment and operation of the electronic death registration system.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.