§ 205.07 Confidential Medical Report of Death; Not Subject to Compelled Disclosure or Inspection.
RCNY § 205.07
(a)The confidential medical report of death shall be confidential and not subject to compelled disclosure or to inspection by persons other than the Commissioner or authorized personnel of the Department, except in a criminal action or criminal proceeding, or for official purposes by a Federal, State, county or municipal agency charged by law with the duty of detecting or prosecuting crime, or by researchers authorized and approved by the National Death Index of the National Center for Health Statistics of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or successor agency. The Commissioner or the Commissioner's designee may, however, approve the inspection of such confidential medical reports for scientific purposes and by the spouse, domestic partner, parent, child, sibling, grandparent or grandchild of the deceased or by the individual identified on the death certificate filed with the Department as the person in control of disposition.
(b)Within the context of this section, scientific purposes shall mean epidemiologic surveillance and investigation by a governmental public health agency, research, and/or the compilation of statistics relating factors bearing on disease incidence, prevalence, mortality or treatment.
(c)Notwithstanding subsection (a), upon application of an individual licensed to practice medicine, the Commissioner or the Commissioner's designee may release a certified copy of the confidential medical report of death, or, in his or her sole discretion, provide abstracts of such information, when, and to the extent that: (1) a need for the family medical history has been demonstrated, to the satisfaction of the Commissioner or the Commissioner's designee, in order to counsel or to diagnose and/or treat an illness or condition in an individual; and (2) the information contained in the confidential medical report of death has been demonstrated, to the satisfaction of the Commissioner or the Commissioner's designee, to be otherwise unavailable.
(d)The information released pursuant to subsection (c) may be issued only to the licensed practitioner making the request. (Amended City Record 3/25/2016, eff. 4/24/2016)
