What's happening
This bill allows local or regional teams to review accidental fatalities, including overdoses and suicides, to improve public health responses.
Why it matters
Enables multi-agency collaboration. The bill mandates that fatality review teams include representatives from public health, mental health, substance abuse, law enforcement, medical, and legal sectors, ensuring a comprehensive, coordinated approach to understanding and preventing accidental deaths.
Facilitates access to critical information. These teams are granted timely access to relevant records (excluding those protected by privilege), allowing for thorough reviews and identification of systemic gaps or failures that may have contributed to fatalities.
Protects privacy and encourages candid participation. Team members are granted immunity for good faith actions, and all proceedings and records are confidential (with limited reporting requirements), promoting open dialogue and reducing fear of legal repercussions for sharing sensitive information.
Promotes actionable policy recommendations. The required (if produced) fatality reports must analyze causes of death, prior interventions, and recommend changes to local or state policy—potentially driving improvements in public health systems, service delivery, and preventative strategies.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Create Local Death Review Teams
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
1 Co-sponsor
History
- Referred to health
- Referred to health
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
976
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE (Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
Introduced by Sen. ROLISON -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Health
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to authorizing local or regional accidental fatality review teams
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Article 2 of the public health law is amended by adding a new title 9 to read as follows:
TITLE 9
LOCAL OR REGIONAL ACCIDENTAL FATALITY REVIEW TEAMS Section 269-e. Local or regional accidental fatality review teams.
§ 269-e. Local or regional accidental fatality review teams. 1. An accidental fatality review team may be established at a local or regional level, with the approval of the department, for the purpose of investigating the unexpected or unexplained death of any person including but not limited to deaths suspected to be caused by overdose or suicide.
2. For the purposes of this section, a local or regional accidental fatality review team shall include, but need not be limited to, representatives from the department, county department of health, or, should the locality not have a county department of health, the local health commissioner or such commissioner's designee or the local public health director or such director's designee, office of mental health, office of alcoholism and substance abuse, county department of mental health, office of the medical examiner, or, should the locality not have a medical examiner, office of the coroner, office of the district attorney, office of the county attorney, local and state law enforcement, emergency medical services, a physician or comparable medical professional, preferably with expertise in the areas of substance abuse or mental health, and a substance abuse program provider. A local or
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00402-01-5
regional accidental fatality review team may also include representatives from medical facilities, including hospitals or other appropriate agencies or institutions, domestic violence agencies, and substance abuse programs.
3. A local or regional accidental fatality review team established pursuant to this section shall have access to all records, except those protected by statutory privilege, within twenty-one days of receipt of a request.
4. Members of a local or regional accidental fatality review team, persons attending a meeting of a local or regional accidental fatality review team, and persons who present information to a local or regional accidental fatality review team shall have immunity from civil and criminal liability for all reasonable and good faith actions taken pursuant to this section, and shall not be questioned in any civil or criminal proceeding regarding any opinions formed as a result of a meeting of a local or regional accidental fatality review team. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent a person from testifying as to information obtained independently of a local or regional accidental fatality review team or which is public information.
5. (a) All meetings conducted and all reports and records made and maintained, and books and papers obtained, by a local or regional accidental fatality review team shall be confidential and not open to the general public except by court order and except for an annual report or a fatality report, if the fatality review team chooses to complete such an annual report or fatality report. Any such annual report or fatality report shall not contain any individually identifiable information and shall be provided to the department upon completion. The department shall forward copies of any such report to all other local or regional accidental fatality review teams established pursuant to this section, and to the governor, the temporary president of the senate and the speaker of the assembly.
(b) Any fatality report completed pursuant to this section shall include (i) the cause of death, whether from natural or other causes, (ii) identification of any services provided or actions taken regarding such person and the person's family including prior to such person's death, (iii) any extraordinary or pertinent information concerning the circumstances of such person's death, (iv) any action or further investigation undertaken by the department since the death of the person, and (v) as appropriate, recommendations for local or state administrative or policy changes.
§ 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and completed on or before such effective date.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to authorizing local or regional accidental fatality review teams
Purpose or general idea of bill
Authorizes the creation of local or regional accidental fatality review teams to investigate unexpected suicide and overdose deaths.
Summary of specific provisions
Section 1 amends article 2 of the public health law by adding Title 8: Local or Regional Accidental Fatality Review Teams.
Section 1, part 2 states that the accidental fatality review team shall include representatives from the county department of health or the local health director, the office of mental health, the office of the medical examiner or the office of the coroner, the office of the district attorney, the office of the county attorney, local and state law enforcement, emergency medical services, a physical or medical professional and a substance abuse program provider.
Section 1, part 3 states that an accidental fatality review team shall have access to all records, except those protected by statutory privi- lege, within twenty-one days of their request.
Section 1, part 4 states that members of an accidental fatality review team shall have immunity from civil or criminal liability for all good faith actions taken pursuant to this section and shall not be questioned in any civil or criminal proceeding regarding any opinions formed as a result of a meeting of the accidental fatality review team.
Section 1, part 5 (a), states that all meetings conducted and all reports and records made by an accidental fatality review team shall be confidential and not open to the general public except by court order. Any published or annual fatality report shall not contain any individ- ually identifiable information and shall be provided to the department upon completion.
Section 1, part 5 (b), states that any report completed pursuant to this section shall include, the cause of death, identification of any services provided or actions taken regarding such person and his or her family, any extraordinary or pertinent information concerning the circumstances of such persons death, any further action or investigation undertaken by the department since the death of the person and recommen- dation for local or state administrative or policy changes.
Section 2 states that the bill take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law
Justification
Accidental fatality review teams are a tool in combating increasing suicide rates and the heroin and opioid epidemic. The team's objective is to review the incidents and identify gaps in services and recommend policy changes to ultimately improve substance abuse disorder and mental health treatment.
Currently, New York has child fatality review process that sets out to prevent future deaths, to assist in the investigative process and improve the social services system. This legislation sets up the acci- dental fatality review teams in the same way with similar objectives for overdose and suicide deaths.
According to the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, nine states have authorized overdose fatality review teams including Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia. These teams have identified service gaps and policy changes to improve outcomes for individuals with substance use disorders.
Legislative history
2023-24 - S5378: Referred to Health
2021-22 - S2032: Referred to Health
2020 - S6846: Referred to Health
2019 - S6846: Referred to Rules
Fiscal implications
Minimal.
Effective date
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.