Public Act 103-0741
 
HB4993 EnrolledLRB103 38348 CES 68483 b

    AN ACT concerning health.
 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, 
represented in the General Assembly:
 
    Section 5. The Vital Records Act is amended by changing 
Section 18 as follows:
 
    (410 ILCS 535/18)  (from Ch. 111 1/2, par. 73-18)
    Sec. 18. (1) Each death which occurs in this State shall be 
registered by filing a death certificate with the local 
registrar of the district in which the death occurred or the 
body was found, within 7 days after such death (within 5 days 
if the death occurs prior to January 1, 1989) and prior to 
cremation or removal of the body from the State, except when 
death is subject to investigation by the coroner or medical 
examiner. If a death occurs in this State in a county outside 
the deceased's county of residence, the local registrar of the 
district in which the death certificate was filed shall, 
within 7 days of its filing, send a copy of the death 
certificate to the local registrar in the district where the 
deceased's county of residence is located. 
        (a) For the purposes of this Section, if the place of 
    death is unknown, a death certificate shall be filed in 
    the registration district in which a dead body is found, 
    which shall be considered the place of death.
        (b) When a death occurs on a moving conveyance, the 
    place where the body is first removed from the conveyance 
    shall be considered the place of death and a death 
    certificate shall be filed in the registration district in 
    which such place is located.
        (c) The funeral director who first assumes custody of 
    a dead body shall be responsible for filing a completed 
    death certificate. He or she shall obtain the personal 
    data from the next of kin or the best qualified person or 
    source available; he or she shall enter on the certificate 
    the name, relationship, and address of the informant; he 
    or she shall enter the date, place, and method of final 
    disposition; he or she shall affix his or her own 
    signature and enter his or her address; and shall present 
    the certificate to the person responsible for completing 
    the medical certification of cause of death. The person 
    responsible for completing the medical certification of 
    cause of death must note the presence of 
    methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, clostridium 
    difficile, or vancomycin-resistant enterococci if it is a 
    contributing factor to or the cause of death. Additional 
    multi-drug resistant organisms (MDROs) may be added to 
    this list by the Department by rule.
    (2) The medical certification shall be completed and 
signed within 48 hours after death by the certifying health 
care professional who, within 12 months prior to the date of 
the patient's death, was treating or managing treatment of the 
patient's illness or condition which resulted in death, except 
when death is subject to the coroner's or medical examiner's 
investigation. In the absence of the certifying health care 
professional or with his or her approval, the medical 
certificate may be completed and signed by his or her 
associate physician, advanced practice registered nurse, or 
physician assistant, the chief medical officer of the 
institution in which death occurred, or the physician who 
performed an autopsy upon the decedent. 
    (3) When a death occurs without medical attendance, or 
when it is otherwise subject to the coroner's or medical 
examiner's investigation, the coroner or medical examiner 
shall be responsible for the completion of a coroner's or 
medical examiner's certificate of death and shall sign the 
medical certification within 48 hours after death, except as 
provided by regulation in special problem cases. If the 
decedent was under the age of 18 years at the time of his or 
her death, and the death was due to injuries suffered as a 
result of a motor vehicle backing over a child, or if the death 
occurred due to the power window of a motor vehicle, the 
coroner or medical examiner must send a copy of the medical 
certification, with information documenting that the death was 
due to a vehicle backing over the child or that the death was 
caused by a power window of a vehicle, to the Department of 
Children and Family Services. The Department of Children and 
Family Services shall (i) collect this information for use by 
Child Death Review Teams and (ii) compile and maintain this 
information as part of its Annual Child Death Review Team 
Report to the General Assembly. 
    (3.5) The medical certification of cause of death shall 
expressly provide an opportunity for the person completing the 
certification to indicate that the death was caused in whole 
or in part by a dementia-related disease, Parkinson's Disease, 
or Parkinson-Dementia Complex.
    (4) When the deceased was a veteran of any war of the 
United States, the funeral director shall prepare a 
"Certificate of Burial of U. S. War Veteran", as prescribed 
and furnished by the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs, 
and submit such certificate to the Illinois Department of 
Veterans' Affairs monthly.
    (5) When a death is presumed to have occurred in this State 
but the body cannot be located, a death certificate may be 
prepared by the State Registrar upon receipt of an order of a 
court of competent jurisdiction which includes the finding of 
facts required to complete the death certificate. Such death 
certificate shall be marked "Presumptive" and shall show on 
its face the date of the registration and shall identify the 
court and the date of the judgment.
(Source: P.A. 102-257, eff. 1-1-22; 102-844, eff. 1-1-23; 
103-154, eff. 6-30-23.)
 
    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon 
becoming law.

Effective Date:  8/2/2024