STATEMENT TO

[First Reprint]

ASSEMBLY, No. 798

with Senate Floor Amendments

(Proposed by Senator SINGER)

ADOPTED: DECEMBER 2, 2021

      These Senate floor amendments:

      1) eliminate the term “drug” from section 1 of the bill;

      2) remove references to local boards of health;

      3) revise the review of confirmed overdose fatalities;

      4) provide that a local drug overdose fatality review team may be established to serve one or more counties;

      5) permit the Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner to direct a local overdose fatality review team to establish a municipal subcommittee to focus on a municipality with a population of 100,000 persons or more; or a municipality with a high overdose rate as determined on annual basis by the Department of Health and the Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner;

      6) remove the Deputy Commissioner for Public Health Services as a requester of information who fatality review teams are required to cooperate with;

      7) remove the municipal health officer as a required member of a fatality review team;

      8) remove the pharmacy permit holder as a permissive member of a fatality review team;

      9) add a representative of the office of county probation and parole services as a permissive member of a fatality review team;

      10) replace where the “decedent was pronounced dead” with where the “overdose fatality was primarily investigated” regarding where the review is to be conducted;

      11) make certain technical changes;

      12) make changes to the manner in which local overdose fatality review teams handle records in their possession;

      13) provide that to the extent not otherwise inconsistent with State and federal laws, and as necessary to carry out the official functions of the local team and the provisions of this bill, other individuals and entities identified by a local overdose fatality review team as having relevant data for a confidential case report may also provide a local team with relevant information in their possession that may contain personally identifiable information;

      14) provide for the establishment of a confidentiality policy; and

      15) add a reference to county and local health departments in section 6 of the bill regarding entities that may pursue funding to fulfill the provisions of the bill.