§ 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. The payment referenced in subdivision five of this section
shall be collected for each burial or removal permit issued on or after
the effective date of this section from the licensed funeral director or
undertaker to whom such permit is issued, in the manner specified by the
department and shall be used solely for the purpose set forth in
subdivision five of this section. 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.

5. Licensed funeral directors and undertakers shall support the
establishment and maintenance of the electronic death registration
system through a payment, tendered for each burial and removal permit
issued to a licensed funeral director or undertaker, in the amount of
twenty dollars, provided that such payment shall be considered a cost of
operation and the funeral director or undertaker shall not charge any
additional fee related to such payment for funeral or other services.