Bill Text: MS HB965 | 2015 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Coroners/county medical examiners; establish reused salary scale for based on county population.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2015-02-03 - Died In Committee [HB965 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2015-HB965-Introduced.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2015 Regular Session
To: Public Health and Human Services; Fees and Salaries of Public Officers
By: Representative Myers
House Bill 965
AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 41-61-59, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PRESCRIBE FOR THE REVISED SALARY SCALE INCREASE THAT SHALL BE PROVIDED TO CHIEF COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER OR CHIEF COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER INVESTIGATOR BASED ON THE POPULATION OF THE COUNTY OF SERVICE BASED ON THE MOST RECENT FEDERAL DECENNIAL CENSUS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. Section 41-61-59, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
41-61-59. (1) A person's death that affects the public interest as specified in subsection (2) of this section shall be promptly reported to the medical examiner by the physician in attendance, any hospital employee, any law enforcement officer having knowledge of the death, the embalmer or other funeral home employee, any emergency medical technician, any relative or any other person present. The appropriate medical examiner shall notify the municipal or state law enforcement agency or sheriff and take charge of the body. When the medical examiner has received notification under Section 41-39-15(6) that the deceased is medically suitable to be an organ and/or tissue donor, the medical examiner's authority over the body shall be subject to the provisions of Section 41-39-15(6). The appropriate medical examiner shall notify the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics within twenty-four (24) hours of receipt of the body in cases of death as described in subsection (2)(m) or (n) of this section.
(2) A death affecting the public interest includes, but is not limited to, any of the following:
(a) Violent death, including homicidal, suicidal or accidental death.
(b) Death caused by thermal, chemical, electrical or radiation injury.
(c) Death caused by criminal abortion, including self-induced abortion, or abortion related to or by sexual abuse.
(d) Death related to disease thought to be virulent or contagious that may constitute a public hazard.
(e) Death that has occurred unexpectedly or from an unexplained cause.
(f) Death of a person confined in a prison, jail or correctional institution.
(g) Death of a person where a physician was not in attendance within thirty-six (36) hours preceding death, or in prediagnosed terminal or bedfast cases, within thirty (30) days preceding death.
(h) Death of a person where the body is not claimed by a relative or a friend.
(i) Death of a person where the identity of the deceased is unknown.
(j) Death of a child under the age of two (2) years where death results from an unknown cause or where the circumstances surrounding the death indicate that sudden infant death syndrome may be the cause of death.
(k) Where a body is brought into this state for disposal and there is reason to believe either that the death was not investigated properly or that there is not an adequate certificate of death.
(l) Where a person is presented to a hospital emergency room unconscious and/or unresponsive, with cardiopulmonary resuscitative measures being performed, and dies within twenty-four (24) hours of admission without regaining consciousness or responsiveness, unless a physician was in attendance within thirty-six (36) hours preceding presentation to the hospital, or in cases in which the decedent had a prediagnosed terminal or bedfast condition, unless a physician was in attendance within thirty (30) days preceding presentation to the hospital.
(m) Death that is caused by drug overdose or which is believed to be caused by drug overdose.
(n) When a stillborn fetus is delivered and the cause of the demise is medically believed to be from the use by the mother of any controlled substance as defined in Section 41-29-105.
(3) The State Medical Examiner is empowered to investigate deaths, under the authority hereinafter conferred, in any and all political subdivisions of the state. The county medical examiners and county medical examiner investigators, while appointed for a specific county, may serve other counties on a regular basis with written authorization by the State Medical Examiner, or may serve other counties on an as-needed basis upon the request of the ranking officer of the investigating law enforcement agency. If a death affecting the public interest takes place in a county other than the one where injuries or other substantial causal factors leading to the death have occurred, jurisdiction for investigation of the death may be transferred, by mutual agreement of the respective medical examiners of the counties involved, to the county where the injuries or other substantial causal factors occurred, and the costs of autopsy or other studies necessary to the further investigation of the death shall be borne by the county assuming jurisdiction.
(4) * * * In addition to the fees
specified in Sections 41-61-69 and 41-61-75 for services prescribed by law
and by virtue of employment, * * *
every chief county medical examiner or chief county medical examiner
investigator shall receive as full compensation for his or her services an
annual salary based upon the population of his or her county according to the
most recent federal decennial census; however, no chief county medical examiner
or chief county medical examiner investigator shall be paid less than the
salary authorized under this section to be paid the chief county medical
examiner or chief county medical examiner investigator based upon the
population of the county according to the 2010 federal decennial census. The
amount of which salary shall be determined as follows:
(a) In counties with a population of more than two hundred thousand (200,000), a salary of Fifty-five Thousand Five Hundred Fifty-nine Dollars ($55,559.00).
(b) In counties with a population of more than one hundred fifty thousand (150,000) but not more than two hundred thousand (200,000), a salary of Fifty-one Thousand Five Dollars ($51,005.00).
(c) In counties with a population of more than seventy-five thousand (75,000) but not more than one hundred fifty thousand (150,000), a salary of Forty-six Thousand Four Hundred Fifty-one Dollars ($46,451.00).
(d) In counties with a population of more than forty-nine thousand (49,000) but not more than seventy-five thousand (75,000), a salary of Forty Thousand Seventy-five Dollars ($40,075.00).
(e) In counties with a population of more than thirty-four thousand (34,000) but not more than forty-nine thousand (49,000), a salary of Thirty-four Thousand Six Hundred Ten Dollars ($34,610.00).
(f) In counties with a population of more than twenty-four thousand five hundred (24,500) but not more than thirty-four thousand (34,000), a salary of Thirty-two Thousand Seven Hundred Eighty-nine Dollars ($32,789.00).
(g) In counties with a population of more than twenty-one thousand (21,000) but not more than twenty-four thousand five hundred (24,500), a salary of Twenty-nine Thousand One Hundred Forty-six Dollars ($29,146.00).
(h) In counties with a population of more than sixteen thousand five hundred (16,500) but not more than twenty-one thousand (21,000), a salary of Twenty-five Thousand Five Hundred Two Dollars ($25,502.00).
(i) In counties with a population of more than twelve thousand (12,000) but not more than sixteen thousand five hundred (16,500), a salary of Twenty-one Thousand Eight Hundred Fifty-nine Dollars ($21,859.00).
(j) In counties with a population of more than eight thousand (8,000) but not more than twelve thousand (12,000), a salary of Eighteen Thousand Dollars ($18,000.00).
(k) In counties with a population of eight thousand (8,000) or less, a salary of Fourteen Thousand Four Hundred Dollars ($14,400.00).
For this salary the chief shall assure twenty-four-hour daily and readily available death investigators for the county, and shall maintain copies of all medical examiner death investigations for the county for at least the previous five (5) years. He shall coordinate his office and duties and cooperate with the State Medical Examiner, and the State Medical Examiner shall cooperate with him.
SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2015.
