Bill Text: PA HB1481 | 2011-2012 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Further providing for general powers and duties of Department of Health, for disclosure of records and for evidentiary sufficiency of records; providing for access to records on Internet website; and making an appropriation.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 34-15)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-05-09 - Referred to HEALTH [HB1481 Detail]

Download: Pennsylvania-2011-HB1481-Introduced.html

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PRINTER'S NO. 1807
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE BILL
No. 1481 Session of2011
INTRODUCED BY DENLINGER, CALTAGIRONE, CLYMER, D. COSTA, CREIGHTON, CUTLER, FLECK, GEIST, GILLEN, GINGRICH, GROVE, HARHART, HESS, JOSEPHS, KILLION, KIRKLAND, KOTIK, MANN, MILLARD, MILLER, MILNE, MOUL, MURT, MUSTIO, PICKETT, PYLE, RAPP, ROCK, SACCONE, SAYLOR, SCAVELLO, SCHRODER, TALLMAN, VULAKOVICH, WATSON, WHEATLEY AND WHITE, MAY 9, 2011
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, MAY 9, 2011
AN ACT
Amending the act of June 29, 1953 (P.L.304, No.66), entitled "An
act providing for the administration of a statewide system of
vital statistics; prescribing the functions of the State
Department of Health, the State Advisory Health Board and
local registrars; imposing duties upon coroners,
prothonotaries, clerks of orphans' court, physicians,
midwives and other persons; requiring reports and
certificates for the registration of vital statistics;
regulating the disposition of dead bodies; limiting the
disclosure of records; prescribing the sufficiency of vital
statistics records as evidence; prescribing fees and
penalties; and revising and consolidating the laws relating
thereto," further providing for general powers and duties of
Department of Health, for disclosure of records and for
evidentiary sufficiency of records; providing for access to
records on Internet website; and making an appropriation.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. Sections 201, 801 and 810 of the act of June 29,
1953 (P.L.304, No.66), known as the Vital Statistics Law of
1953, are amended to read:
Section 201. Department: General Powers and Duties.--(a)
The department shall, pursuant to the provisions of the act,
approved the ninth day of April, one thousand nine hundred
twenty-nine (Pamphlet Laws 177), as amended, cited as "The
Administrative Code of 1929":
(1) Administer and enforce the provisions of this act and
the regulations made pursuant thereto.
(2) Install and maintain a statewide system of vital
statistics.
(3) Be the custodian of all vital statistics files and
records collected, created or compiled under the provisions of
this act.
(4) Have supervisory power over all local registrars
appointed under the provisions of this act.
(b) Within two (2) years of the effective date of this
subsection, the department shall implement an Internet-based
electronic death registration system for the creation, storage
and transfer of death registration information. The electronic
death registration system shall protect the proper use of the
death registration information created, stored and transferred
within the system and shall be subject to any limitation placed
on the accessibility and release of personally identifying
information contained in a death record by any other provision
of law.
Section 801. Records: Disclosure in General.--The vital
statistics records of the department and of local registrars
shall not be open to public inspection except as authorized by
the provisions of this act and the regulations of the Advisory
Health Board. Neither the department nor local registrars shall
issue copies of or disclose any vital statistics record or part
thereof created under the provisions of this or prior acts
except in compliance with the provisions of this act and the
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regulations of the Advisory Health Board. When one hundred (100)
years have elapsed after the date of birth or fifty (50) years
have elapsed after the date of death, the records, including any
application filed in connection therewith, of these events shall
become public records, and information shall be made available
in written form and without fee or charge for access on an
Internet website established and maintained by the department in
accordance with regulations which shall provide for the
continued safekeeping of the records.
Section 810. Records: Evidentiary Sufficiency.--(a) Any
written record or duly certified copy of a record or part
thereof which is (1) filed with the department in accordance
with the provisions of this act and the regulations of the
Advisory Health Board and which (2) is not a "delayed" record
filed under section seven hundred two of this act or a record
"corrected" under section seven hundred three of this act shall
constitute prima facie evidence of its contents, except that in
any proceeding in which paternity is controverted and which
affects the interests of an alleged father or his successors in
interest no record or part thereof shall constitute prima facie
evidence of paternity unless the alleged father is the husband
of the mother of the child.
(b) Only records or duly certified copies of records
maintained or issued by the department and with the raised seal
of the department or bureau affixed thereto shall constitute
prima facie evidence.
Section 2. The act is amended by adding a section to read:
Section 811. Access to Records on Internet Website.--(a)
The department shall establish and maintain a searchable
database of all birth and death certificates records held and
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maintained by the department. The database shall be subject to
any limitation placed on the accessibility and release of
personally identifying information contained in a record by any
other provision of law.
(b) The department shall establish and maintain a searchable
index database of all death records for which more than two (2)
years have elapsed but fewer than fifty (50) years have elapsed.
The index database shall be open to public examination without
charge or fee on an Internet website. The information open to
public examination in the index shall include the decedents'
names, dates of death, dates of birth, places of death and
places of birth.
Section 3. An amount to be determined shall be appropriated
to the Department of Health for the implementation of this act.
Section 4. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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