republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2019/hb-2445.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Death certificate; medical certification, electronic filing w/State Registrar of Vital Records, etc."
description: "Requires the completed medical certification portion of a death certificate to be filed electronically with the State Registrar of Vital Records through the Electronic Death Registration System and provides that, except under certain circumstances, failure to file a medical certification of death electronically through the Electronic Death Registration System shall constitute grounds for disciplinary action by the Board of Medicine. The bill includes a delayed effective date of January 1, 2020, and a phased-in requirement for registration with the Electronic Death Registration System and electronic filing of medical certifications of death for various categories of health care providers. The bill directs the Department of Health to work with stakeholders to educate and encourage physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners to timely register with and utilize the Electronic Death Registration System."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2019"
identifier: "HB 2445"
citation: "Virginia HB 2445 (2019)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Health", "Professions and Occupations", "Records Retention"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Tony O. Wilt"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 19
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2019-01-09"
last_action: "2019-03-05"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/579195a1-b633-443d-be51-f559a68b2b30"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+sum+HB2445"
source_hash: "8f346a2190051e508f913ec17d2851abcb72ba6841e0ba5e9c947f9c9e5d82c8"
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-va"]
---

# Virginia HB 2445 (2019) — Death certificate; medical certification, electronic filing w/State Registrar of Vital Records, etc.

Requires the completed medical certification portion of a death certificate to be filed electronically with the State Registrar of Vital Records through the Electronic Death Registration System and provides that, except under certain circumstances, failure to file a medical certification of death electronically through the Electronic Death Registration System shall constitute grounds for disciplinary action by the Board of Medicine. The bill includes a delayed effective date of January 1, 2020, and a phased-in requirement for registration with the Electronic Death Registration System and electronic filing of medical certifications of death for various categories of health care providers. The bill directs the Department of Health to work with stakeholders to educate and encourage physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners to timely register with and utilize the Electronic Death Registration System.

## Version chain

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

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0213)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+CHAP0213)
2. **House subcommittee amendments and substitutes adopted** (committee substitute) — [source](https://committees.lis.virginia.gov/subcommitteeaction.aspx?ses=191&bil=HB2445)
3. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB2445ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2445ER)
4. **House: Committee substitute printed 19105355D-H1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2445H1)
5. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19102122D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2445)

## Votes

- Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute — **6–0** (pass) · lower
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **98–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Health, Welfare and Institutions with substitute — **22–0** (pass) · lower
- Passed House BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Education and Health — **15–0** (pass) · upper
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Tony O. Wilt — primary (person)
- Emily M. Brewer — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-01-09** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19102122D `introduction`
- **2019-01-09** Referred to Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-16** Assigned HWI sub: Subcommittee #3 `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-28** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2019-01-29** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2019-01-29** Committee substitute agreed to 19105355D-H1
- **2019-01-29** Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB2445H1
- **2019-01-30** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (98-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2019-01-30** Reconsideration of passage agreed to by House
- **2019-01-30** Passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2019-01-31** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2019-01-31** Referred to Committee on Education and Health `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-11** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2019-02-14** Enrolled
- **2019-02-14** Signed by Speaker
- **2019-02-14** Signed by President
- **2019-02-18** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on February 18, 2019
- **2019-02-18** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 26, 2019
- **2019-03-05** Approved by Governor-Chapter 213 (effective - see bill) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/579195a1-b633-443d-be51-f559a68b2b30`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).