§ 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.