I am in favor of this bill. As a funeral director I have had numerous encounters where I could not get a doctor to sign a death certificate in a timely manner as required in the Code of Virginia 32.1-263 C. (Doctors or nurse practitioners are required to sign within 24 hours of death). It causes a lot of issues with the progress of making final funeral arrangements as noted within the attachment Also, it can be an additional financial burden on families as there can be extra charges for storage/refrigeration of the deceased, families having to reschedule flights and/or hotels, etc. In addition, the loss of a loved one is an emotional time but having to delay the process of arrangements can add more emotional stress.

This is an onerous bill for physicians. Requiring all physicians to do this is crazy. A significant number of physicians do not need to do death certificates such as lab pathologists, plain film radiologists, etc. Large percentage of physicians do a good job completing death certificates when the funeral home enters the correct information into the system and they enter the info in a timely fashion. Completing death certificates has been a several decade issue dating back to the 1990s. I would recommend instead of requiring all physicians and advance practitioners taking this course, develop a system notifying the Board of Medicine and Nursing when a death certificate is not completed in a timely fashion to investigate the cause. If the physician or advance practitioner is not completing the required certificate in a timely fashion that particular person then be required to complete the CME. As a physician I spend enough time trying to keep up with the practice of medicine, dealing with electronic medical records and dealing with prior authorizations.