2023 New York Laws › PBH - Public Health › Article 41 - Vital Statistics › Title 4 - Registration of Deaths: Burial Permits › 4148 - Electronic Death Registration System.

§  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.