SB499: Bill Text

SB499,13,9 156.17 Revocation of request for medication. (1) A requester may revoke his or her request for medication at any time by doing any of the following:

SB499,13,12 (a) Canceling, defacing, obliterating, burning, tearing, or otherwise destroying the written request for medication or directing another in the presence of the requester to destroy, in the same manner, the request for medication.

SB499,13,14 (b) Executing a statement, in writing, that is signed and dated by the requester, expressing the requester's intent to revoke the request for medication.

SB499,13,16 (c) Orally expressing the requester's intent to revoke the request for medication, in the presence of 2 witnesses or the attending physician.

SB499,13,20 (2) A health care provider shall, upon notification of revocation of the requester's request for medication, record in the requester's medical record the time, date, and place of the revocation and the time, date, and place, if different, of the notification to the health care provider of the revocation.

SB499,14,2 156.19 Designation of residents' advocates. The board on aging and long-term care shall designate staff of the long-term care ombudsman program as residents' advocates. A person so designated shall serve as a witness to a request for medication of a requester who is a resident of a nursing home or community-based residential facility, as required under s. 156.07 (2) (b), and shall speak on behalf of the requester to ensure that his or her needs or wants are communicated to and addressed by his or her attending physician.

SB499,14,5 156.21 Duties and immunities. (1) No health care facility or health care provider may be charged with a crime, held civilly liable, or charged with unprofessional conduct for any of the following:

SB499,14,10 (a) Failing to fulfill a request for medication, except that failure of an attending physician to fulfill a request for medication constitutes unprofessional conduct if the attending physician refuses or fails to make a good faith attempt to transfer the requester's care and treatment to another physician who will act as attending physician under this chapter and fulfill the request for medication.

SB499,14,12 (b) In the absence of actual knowledge of a revocation, fulfilling a request for medication that is in compliance with this chapter.

SB499,14,15 (c) Acting contrary to or failing to act on a revocation of a request for medication, unless the health care facility or health care provider has actual knowledge of the revocation.

SB499,14,20 (2) In the absence of actual notice to the contrary, a health care facility or a health care provider, other than a physician acting as the requester's attending physician under this chapter, may presume that a requester was authorized to make his or her request for medication under the requirements of this chapter and that the request for medication is valid.

SB499,14,23 (3) (a) No person who acts in good faith as a witness to a request for medication under this chapter may be held civilly or criminally liable for a death that results from taking medication under a fulfilled request for medication under this chapter.

SB499,14,25 (b) Paragraph (a) does not apply to a person who acts as a witness in violation of s. 156.07 (2) (a).

SB499,15,4 156.23 General provisions. (1) (a) The making of a request for medication under this chapter does not, for any purpose, constitute attempted suicide. Taking medication under a fulfilled request for medication under this chapter does not, for any purpose, constitute suicide.

SB499,15,7 (b) Paragraph (a) does not prohibit an insurer from making a determination that a requester has attempted suicide or committed suicide if the requester has so acted, apart from a request for medication.

SB499,15,10 (2) The making of a request for medication under this chapter does not revoke or otherwise modify a power of attorney for health care or declaration to physicians that the requester may have executed.

SB499,15,14 (3) No individual may be required to make a request for medication as a condition for receipt of health care or admission to a health care facility. The making of a request for medication is not a bar to the receipt of health care or the admission to a health care facility.

SB499,15,17 (4) A written request for medication that has not been revoked and that is in its original form or is a legible photocopy or electronic facsimile copy is presumed to be valid.

SB499,15,21 (5) Nothing in this chapter may be construed to condone, authorize, approve, or permit any affirmative or deliberate act to end life other than through taking medication that is prescribed under a request for medication as provided in this chapter.

SB499,15,25 156.25 Record review. The department shall annually examine a sampling of patient health care records of requesters for whom medication was prescribed in fulfillment of a request for medication and about whom the department has received information under s. 156.09 (8) (g).

SB499,16,4 156.27 Penalties. (1) Any person who willfully conceals, cancels, defaces, obliterates, or damages the request for medication of another without the requester's consent may be fined not more than $500 or imprisoned for not more than 30 days, or both.

SB499,16,9 (2) Any person who, with the intent to cause a requester to take medication that is prescribed under a request for medication contrary to the wishes of the requester, illegally falsifies or forges the request for medication of another or conceals a revocation under s. 156.17 shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned for not more than 10 years, or both.

SB499,16,14 (3) Any responsible person who, with the intent to cause a requester to take medication that is prescribed under a request for medication contrary to the wishes of the requester, conceals personal knowledge of a revocation under s. 156.17 shall be fined not more than $10,000 or, except for a health care facility, imprisoned for not more than 10 years, or both.

SB499,4 Section 4 . 979.01 (1) (intro.) of the statutes is amended to read:

SB499,16,22 979.01 (1) (intro.) All Except as provided in sub. (1j), all physicians, authorities of hospitals, sanatoriums, public and private institutions, convalescent homes, authorities of any institution of a like nature, and other persons having knowledge of the death of any person who has died under any of the following circumstances, shall immediately report the death to the sheriff, police chief, or and medical examiner or coroner of the county and to the police chief of any community where the death took place:

SB499,5 Section 5. 979.01 (1g) of the statutes is amended to read:

SB499,17,3 979.01 (1g) A sheriff or police chief shall, immediately upon notification under sub. (1) or s. 948.23 (1) (b) of a death, notify the coroner or the medical examiner, and the coroner or medical examiner of the county where death took place, if the crime, injury, or event occurred in another county, shall immediately report the death to the coroner or medical examiner of that county.

SB499,6 Section 6 . 979.01 (1j) of the statutes is created to read:

SB499,17,7 979.01 (1j) Subsection (1) does not apply to a death that results from taking medication under a fulfilled request for medication that meets the requirements of ch. 156.

SB499,7 Section 7. 979.01 (1r) of the statutes is repealed.

SB499,17,9 (End)