---
type: "Bill"
title: "Public Health - Advance Directives - Witness Requirements, Advance Directives Services, and Fund"
description: "Public Health - Advance Directives - Witness Requirements, Advance Directives Services, and Fund"
jurisdiction: "us/states/md"
legislature: "Maryland General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "HB 188"
citation: "Maryland HB 188 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Public Health", "Insurance - Health", "Advance Medical Directives", "Committees and Commissions", "Comptroller", "Electronic Communication", "Health and Mental Hygiene", "Department of", "Identification", "Revenue and Taxes", "Rules and Regulations", "Witnesses"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Morhaim"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 16
vote_count: 3
first_action: "2017-01-19"
last_action: "2017-05-25"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/f25a67e2-f2b7-4591-b290-5782c783ae7e"
source_url: "http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmMain.aspx?id=HB188&stab=01&pid=billpage&tab=subject3&ys=2017rs"
source_hash: "7b749d93ba75caa784af60b281f9798fbbc69b3085ce8c90c475061a6317158b"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-md"]
---

# Maryland HB 188 (2017) — Public Health - Advance Directives - Witness Requirements, Advance Directives Services, and Fund

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2017RS/bills/hb/hb0188f.pdf)

## Votes

- Third Reading — **134–4** (pass) · legislature
- Third Reading — **130–4** (pass) · legislature
- Third Reading — **47–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Morhaim — primary (person)
- K. Young — cosponsor (person)
- Kipke — cosponsor (person)
- Krebs — cosponsor (person)
- Lam — cosponsor (person)
- Morgan — cosponsor (person)
- Oaks — cosponsor (person)
- Pena-Melnyk — cosponsor (person)
- Saab — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-01-19** First Reading Health and Government Operations `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-25** Hearing 2/07 at 1:00 p.m.
- **2017-03-07** Favorable with Amendments Report by Health and Government Operations `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-08** Favorable with Amendments {516286/1 Report Adopted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-08** Second Reading Passed with Amendments
- **2017-03-10** Third Reading Passed (130-4) `passage`
- **2017-03-13** First Reading Finance `referral-committee`
- **2017-03-15** Hearing 3/29 at 1:00 p.m.
- **2017-03-31** Favorable with Amendments Report by Finance `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-31** Favorable with Amendments {367779/1 Report Adopted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-31** Second Reading Passed with Amendments
- **2017-04-03** Third Reading Passed with Amendments (47-0) `passage`
- **2017-04-06** House Concur - Senate Amendments
- **2017-04-06** Third Reading Passed (134-4) `passage`
- **2017-04-06** Passed Enrolled
- **2017-05-25** Approved by the Governor - Chapter 667 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/f25a67e2-f2b7-4591-b290-5782c783ae7e`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Maryland legislature records).