Brief ⁽¹⁾

SB 224 clarifies the law regarding county coroner notification and reports. The bill requires the county coroner to be notified in the county where the death occurred rather than where the cause of death occurred. Further, the bill provides the coroner's report shall be filed in the county where the death occurred rather than where the cause of death occurred, if known; otherwise, where the dead body was found rather than where the death occurred.

The House Committee amended the bill to provide that the coroner in the county of cause of death will decide if an investigation will take place. If the coroner of the county of the cause of death requests an investigation, the coroner of the county of death will be responsible for the investigation and the certification of death. In such an instance, the costs must be accounted to and reimbursed by the county of the cause of death.

Background

The bill was supported by the State Registrar for Vital Statistics, the State Board of Mortuary Arts, and the Kansas Funeral Directors and Embalmers Association. Proponents said under current law, the coroner serving in the county in which the cause of death occurred may be reluctant to sign the death certificate since the coroner may have no knowledge of the actual event of death and other information regarding the decedent may not be available. For example, the victim of an automobile accident may be taken to a hospital in a county other than where the accident occurred and may later die in the hospital in the other county. The coroner serving in the county where the accident occurred would have to gather information from the coroner where the death occurred. The completion of the death certificates because of the current law are sometimes delayed and the turnaround time for filing insurance claims and closing such records are significantly extended.

The bill has no fiscal impact on the state.

1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/bill_search.html