THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

HOUSE BILL

INTRODUCED BY GRUCELA, BEAR, BELFANTI, BEYER, CALTAGIRONE, BRENNAN, CARROLL, CLYMER, COHEN, CREIGHTON, CURRY, CUTLER, DALEY, FLECK, FREEMAN, GALLOWAY, GEIST, GEORGE, GIBBONS, GOODMAN, HALUSKA, HARHAI, HARHART, HARKINS, HELM, HORNAMAN, HUTCHINSON, KORTZ, KOTIK, KULA, LONGIETTI, MAHONEY, MANN, MARKOSEK, McCALL, MELIO, METZGAR, MILLARD, MILLER, MUNDY, MURPHY, MUSTIO, O'NEILL, PALLONE, PARKER, PAYNE, PHILLIPS, QUIGLEY, READSHAW, REICHLEY, SAMUELSON, SANTONI, SAYLOR, SCAVELLO, SIPTROTH, M. SMITH, SOLOBAY, STERN, VULAKOVICH, WAGNER, WHITE, ADOLPH, HENNESSEY, K. SMITH AND ROCK, MARCH 13, 2009

REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, MARCH 13, 2009  

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

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

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.