Iowa Code 144.26 – Death certificate
Current as of: 2024 | Check for updates
|
Other versions
1. a. A death certificate for each death which occurs in this state shall be filed as directed by the state registrar within three days after the death and prior to final disposition, and shall be registered by the county registrar if it has been completed and filed in accordance with this chapter. A death certificate shall include the social security number, if provided, of the deceased person. All information including the certifying physician’s, physician assistant’s, or advanced registered nurse practitioner’s name shall be typewritten.
b. A physician assistant or an advanced registered nurse practitioner authorized to sign a death certificate shall be licensed in this state and shall have been in charge of the deceased patient’s care.
Terms Used In Iowa Code 144.26
- Child: includes child by adoption. See Iowa Code 4.1
- Dead body: means a lifeless human body or parts or bones of a body, if, from the state of the body, parts, or bones, it may reasonably be concluded that death recently occurred. See Iowa Code 144.1
- Decedent: A deceased person.
- Department: means the department of inspections, appeals, and licensing. See Iowa Code 154A.1
- Department: means the department of health and human services. See Iowa Code 144.1
- Final disposition: means the burial, interment, cremation, removal from the state, or other disposition of a dead body or fetus. See Iowa Code 144.1
- Person: means a natural person. See Iowa Code 154A.1
- Rule: includes "regulation". See Iowa Code 4.1
- State: means a state, territory, or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. See Iowa Code 152E.3
- State registrar: means the state registrar of vital statistics. See Iowa Code 144.1
2. All information included on a death certificate may be provided as mutually agreed upon by the state registrar and child support services, including by automated exchange.
3. a. The county in which a dead body is found is the county of death. If death occurs in a moving conveyance, the county in which the dead body is first removed from the conveyance is the county of death.
b. If a decedent died outside of the county of the decedent’s residence, the state registrar shall send a copy of the decedent’s death certificate and any amendments to the county registrar of the county of the decedent’s residence. The county registrar shall record a death certificate received pursuant to this paragraph in the same records in which the death certificate of a decedent who died within the county is recorded. The state registrar may provide the county registrars with electronic access to vital records in lieu of the requirements of this paragraph.
4. a. The department shall establish by rule procedures for making a finding of presumption of death when no body can be found. The department shall also provide by rule the responsibility for completing and signing the medical certification of cause of death in such circumstances. The presumptive death certificate shall be in a form prescribed by the state registrar and filed in the county where the death was presumed to occur.
b. The department shall provide for the correction, substitution, or removal of a presumptive death certificate when the body of the person is later found, additional facts are discovered, or the person is discovered to be alive.
5. Upon the activation of an electronic death record system, each person with a duty related to death certificates shall participate in the electronic death record system. A person with a duty related to a death certificate includes but is not limited to a physician as defined in section 135.1, a physician assistant, an advanced registered nurse practitioner, a funeral director, and a county recorder.