A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to authorize electronic or facsimile signatures on death certificates without specific approval by the state registrar.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 130A‑115(c) reads as rewritten:
"(c)	The medical certification shall be completed and signed by the physician in charge of the patient's care for the illness or condition which resulted in death, except when the death falls within the circumstances described in G.S. 130A‑383. In the absence of the physician or with the physician's approval, the certificate may be completed and signed by an associate physician, the chief medical officer of the hospital or facility in which the death occurred or a physician who performed an autopsy upon the decedent under the following circumstances: the individual has access to the medical history of the deceased; the individual has viewed the deceased at or after death; and the death is due to natural causes. An electronic signature or facsimile signature of the physician shall be acceptable. As used in this section, the term electronic signature has the same meaning as applies in G.S. 66‑58.2. The physician shall state the cause of death on the certificate in definite and precise terms. A certificate containing any indefinite terms or denoting only symptoms of disease or conditions resulting from disease as defined by the State Registrar, shall be returned to the person making the medical certification for correction and more definite statement."
SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.