BILL NUMBER: AB 535 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 2, 2009
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Ammiano
FEBRUARY 25, 2009
An act to add Section 102336 to the Health and Safety Code, and to
amend Section 11174.8 of the Penal Code, relating to elder death
review teams.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 535, as amended, Ammiano. Elder dearth
death review teams: information requests.
Existing law allows a county to establish an interagency elder
death team to assist local agencies in identifying and reviewing
suspicious elder deaths. Under existing law, the team may request
specified information for their review, subject to prescribed
confidentiality requirements.
This bill would allow the elder death team to request and obtain
copies of certificates of death from the local registrar of births
and deaths, subject to any fee requirements.
Under existing law, deaths are required to be registered with the
local registrar of births and deaths in the district in which the
death occurs. Existing law requires the State Department of Public
Health to enforce the laws pertaining to vital records, including
certificates of death. Existing law requires the department to
implement an Internet-based electronic death registration system.
This bill would require the registrar of births and deaths in a
county that elects to participate in the Internet-based electronic
death registration system to provide specified information
in a report to the chair, cochair, or the agent of the
chair or cochair upon request of a county death review team.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 102336 is added to the Health and Safety Code,
to read:
102336. (a) Notwithstanding
paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 11174.8 of the Penal
Code, upon request, a local registrar of births and deaths in a
county that elects to participate in the Internet-based electronic
death registration system established pursuant to Section 102778
shall provide, from information obtained from the death certificates,
to the chair, cochair, or any agent of the chair or cochair of a
county elder death review team established pursuant to Article 2.7
(commencing with Section 1174.4) of Title 1 of Part 4 of the Penal
Code a report containing all the following information
access to Internet-based electronic death data to
obtain all of the following information , sorted by any one of
the factors:
(1)
(a) Place of death.
(2)
(b) Name, last name followed by first name.
(3)
(c) Date of death.
(4)
(d) Cause of death.
(b) A local registrar subject to this section shall comply with
the requirements of this section on or before July 1, 2010, or a
reasonable time thereafter, but in no case later than December 1,
2010.
SEC. 2. Section 11174.8 of the Penal Code is amended to read:
11174.8. (a) Each organization represented on an elder death
review team may 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. Any information shared by an organization with other members
of a team is confidential. The intent of this subdivision is to
permit the disclosure to members of the team of any information
deemed confidential, privileged, or prohibited from disclosure by any
other provision of law.
(b) (1) Written and oral information may be disclosed to an elder
death review team established pursuant to this section. The team may
make a request in writing for the information sought and any person
with information of the kind described in paragraph (3) may rely on
the request in determining whether information may be disclosed to
the team.
(2) No individual or agency that has information governed by this
subdivision shall be required to disclose information. The intent of
this subdivision is to allow the voluntary disclosure of information
by the individual or agency that has the information.
(3) The following information may be disclosed pursuant to this
subdivision:
(A) Notwithstanding Section 56.10 of the Civil Code, medical
information.
(B) Notwithstanding Section 5328 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code, mental health information.
(C) Notwithstanding Section 15633.5 of the Welfare and
Institutions Code, information from elder abuse reports and
investigations, except the identity of persons who have made reports,
which shall not be disclosed.
(D) State summary criminal history information, criminal offender
record information, and local summary criminal history information,
as defined in Sections 11075, 11105, and 13300.
(E) Notwithstanding Section 11163.2, information pertaining to
reports by health practitioners of persons suffering from physical
injuries inflicted by means of a firearm or of persons suffering
physical injury where the injury is a result of assaultive or abusive
conduct.
(F) Information provided to probation officers in the course of
the performance of their duties, including, but not limited to, the
duty to prepare reports pursuant to Section 1203.10, as well as the
information on which these reports are based.
(G) Notwithstanding Section 10825 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code, records relating to in-home supportive services, unless
disclosure is prohibited by federal law.
(H) Copies Electronic copies of
certificates of death from the local registrar of births and deaths,
subject to any fee requirements.
(c) Written and oral information may be disclosed under this
section notwithstanding Sections 2263, 2918, 4982, and 6068 of the
Business and Professions Code, the lawyer-client privilege protected
by Article 3 (commencing with Section 950) of Chapter 4 of Division 8
of the Evidence Code, the physician-patient privilege protected by
Article 6 (commencing with Section 990) of Chapter 4 of Division 8 of
the Evidence Code, and the psychotherapist-patient privilege
protected by Article 7 (commencing with Section 1010) of Chapter 4 of
Division 8 of the Evidence Code.