BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1644|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 1644
Author: Romero (D), et al
Amended: 8/18/04
Vote: 21
SENATE HEALTH & HUMAN SERV. COMMITTEE : 7-2, 3/24/04
AYES: Alarcon, Chesbro, Escutia, Florez, Kuehl, Romero,
Vasconcellos
NOES: Aanestad, Ashburn
NO VOTE RECORDED: Ortiz, Battin, Figueroa, Vincent
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 4-0, 4/20/04
AYES: McPherson, Vasconcellos, Romero, Sher
NO VOTE RECORDED: Burton, Margett
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 8-4, 5/20/04
AYES: Alpert, Bowen, Burton, Escutia, Karnette, Machado,
Murray, Speier
NOES: Battin, Aanestad, Ashburn, Poochigian
NO VOTE RECORDED: Johnson
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 49-30, 8/23/04 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Long-term health care: deaths of residents:
reporting requirements
SOURCE : California Senior Legislature
DIGEST : This bill requires a local registrar of deaths,
upon the request of a member of a county elder death review
team (EDRT), to make available and assist the electronic
CONTINUED
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transfer of information from a certificate of death to the
county EDRT in any county that has access to the statewide
system, as specified.
Assembly amendments : (1) apply the mandate in the bill
relating to information made available from death
certificate to a local register of births and deaths in a
county that elects to participate in the Internet-based
electronic death registration system; (2) require the
report from the local register of births and deaths to
contain four specified elements; and, (3) requires
compliance on or before July 1, 2005, or no later than
December 1, 2005.
ANALYSIS : Existing law:
1. Allows each county to establish an interagency elder
death team to assist local agencies in identifying and
reviewing suspicious elder deaths and facilitating
communication among persons involved in investigating
elder abuse cases.
2. Allows for each organization represented on an EDRT to
share with other members of the team information in its
possession concerning the decedent who is the subject of
the review or any person who was in contact with the
decedent and any other information deemed by the
organization to be pertinent to the review.
3. Establishes, by January 1, 2005, the Internet-based
electronic death registration system within DHS, limited
to proper use of the death information created, stored,
and transferred within the system and subject to any
limitation placed on the accessibility and release of
personally identifying information contained in those
death records.
This bill:
1. Requires a local registrar of births and deaths in a
county that elects to participate in the Internet-based
electronic death registration system established by the
department, as specified, to provide, from information
obtained from death certificates, to the chair, cochair,
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or any agent of the chair or cochair, of a county EDRT,
as specified, upon request, a report for a date period
specified by the requester that contains the following
four elements:
A. Place of death.
B. Last name, followed by first name, of the deceased
person.
C. Date of death.
D. Cause of death.
1. Requires a local register to comply with the
requirements of this bill on or before July 1, 2005, or
a reasonable time thereafter, but in no case later than
December 1, 2005.
2. Allows an organization represented on an EDRT to request
and obtain copies of certificates of death from the
local registrar of births and deaths subject to any fee
requirement and allows each organization represented on
an EDRT to share that information with any other member
of the team.
3. Maintains the confidentiality and disclosure
requirements, as defined.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee
analysis, this bill would have minor state fiscal effect.
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/23/04)
California Senior Legislature (source)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees
Area Agency on Aging Advisory Council (previous version)
California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (previous
version)
California State Coroners' Association
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California State Sheriffs' Association
Consumer Attorneys of California (previous version)
Gray Panthers (previous version)
Older Women's League (previous version)
OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/23/04)
Department of Finance
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
this bill authorizes a member of a local EDRT to access
death certificates electronically from vital statistics in
their county. This bill ensures access of death information
for EDRTs, which are made up of governmental and law
enforcement officials that currently do not have portal
access to death certificates held in vital statistics.
Finally, this bill provides an essential tool to EDRTs to
effectively track the deaths of elders in each county. For
example, patterns that may develop locally with respect to
deaths will be more easily tracked and responded to with
this information.
The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal
Employees (AFSCME) states that current law requires that
each death be registered with the local registrar of births
and deaths in the district in which the death was
officially pronounced or the body was found within eight
calendar days after death and prior to any disposition of
the human remains. This bill would require a local
registrar of deaths to make available and assist the
electronic transfer of information from a certificate of
death to the county EDRT, in accordance with the
Internet-based electronic death registration system in any
county that has access to it. AFSCME supports this bill
because it would allow members of an EDRT to electronically
access death certificates from vital statistics.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : (not available at time of this
writing)
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Berg, Bermudez, Bogh, Calderon, Canciamilla, Chan,
Chavez, Chu, Cohn, Corbett, Correa, Diaz, Dutra, Dymally,
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Firebaugh, Frommer, Goldberg, Hancock, Jerome Horton,
Jackson, Kehoe, Laird, Leno, Levine, Lieber, Liu,
Longville, Lowenthal, Maldonado, Matthews, Montanez,
Mullin, Nakano, Nation, Negrete McLeod, Oropeza, Parra,
Pavley, Reyes, Ridley-Thomas, Salinas, Simitian,
Steinberg, Vargas, Wesson, Wiggins, Wolk, Yee, Nunez
NOES: Aghazarian, Bates, Benoit, Campbell, Cogdill, Cox,
Daucher, Dutton, Garcia, Harman, Haynes, Shirley Horton,
Houston, Keene, La Malfa, La Suer, Leslie, Maddox, Maze,
McCarthy, Mountjoy, Nakanishi, Pacheco, Plescia, Richman,
Runner, Samuelian, Spitzer, Strickland, Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Koretz
CP:nl 8/24/04 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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