N.Y. Public Health Law § 4148: Electronic death registration system

§ 4148. Electronic death registration system. 1. The department is

hereby authorized and directed to design, implement and maintain an

electronic death registration system for collecting, storing, recording,

transmitting, amending, correcting and authenticating information, as

necessary and appropriate to complete a death registration, and to

generate such documents as determined by the department in relation to a

death occurring in this state. As part of the design and implementation

of the system established by this section, the department shall consult

with all persons authorized to use such system to the extent practicable

and feasible. Except as specifically provided in this section, the

existing general duties of, and 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 section.

2. Commencing on the implementation date, the department shall require

that deaths occurring within this state must be registered using the

electronic death registration system established in this section.

Electronic death registration may be phased in, as determined by the

commissioner, for deaths occurring in the state until the electronic

death registration system is fully implemented in the state. As used in

this section, "implementation date" means the first day in January in

the second year after this section becomes a law, or as soon thereafter

as the commissioner reasonably determines by regulation is feasible in

light of the intent of this section.

3. Commencing on the implementation date, all persons required to

register a death or file a certificate of death under this article, and

such others as may be authorized by the commissioner, 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 generate documentation from the

electronic death registration system. The confidentiality provisions in

section forty-one hundred forty-seven of this title shall apply to

information maintained in this system.

4. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, commencing on

or after January first, two thousand fifteen, or on such date determined

by the commissioner pursuant to subdivision two of this section, any

requirement of this title for a signature of any person shall be deemed

satisfied by the use by such person of digital signature provided such

person is authorized in accordance with this section to use the

electronic death registration system.