Rep. Marc Gibbs, R-Grace, said training for coroners would lead to better results for people who have a death in their family. “It appears to be a small burden to put on the fact that we’re doing a better job in determining the actual cause of death in some situations,” Gibbs said. “Both the families and the insurances companies have a stake in ensuring accuracy.” County coroners are elected officials, and Gibbs said several coroners are expected not to run for re-election this fall.

“Coroners see things that hopefully no one here will ever have to see, and training is a good thing for them,” said Senate President Pro Tem Bob Geddes, R-Soda Springs. “This legislation will go a long way in helping our coroners be the professionals that they would all like to be.”

“We expect several coroners to not run, and we think it’s only fair that anyone to come from another agency or another line of work to have some training,” said Gem County Coroner John Buck, a member of the Idaho State Association of County Coroners.

Payette County Coroner Keith Schuller said he took a one-week course in St. Louis after he was elected coroner. “The course was excellent,” Schuller said. “It covered every conceivable event that I was going to see.” Before becoming a coroner, Schuller was an army medic, plumber, and school teacher. He added that during the daylong classes, new coroners would watch videos of autopsies while eating sandwiches for lunch.

The current $13 charge for each death certificate goes to the Idaho Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics, which manages birth and death certificates. Bureau director James Aydelotte opposed adding a dollar to each certificate. “I don’t think it’s a good time to raise fees,” he said. “Adopting this fee is essentially adding a 7 percent tax to the cost of a death certificate.” Aydelotte said adding the fee would open the doors to other organizations attempting to tack on added fees for birth and death certificates that would go to them. He also said there’s no way to guarantee that funds collected in one county from the extra $1 would stay in that county for training. “There are more appropriate funding mechanisms,” Aydelotte said. “It seems that the most appropriate solution would be at the county level.”

“A dollar in a lot of situations is a lot of money,” said Caribou County Coroner Duayne Sims. “In this situation, it really isn’t.”

The legislation now heads to the Senate floor for a vote. Read IdahoReporter.com‘s story on House approval of the added fee here.  The text of the legislation, HB492, is available here.

“We’re trying to extend the same liability protection to non-residence responders that Idaho (responders) have,” said Rep. Marc Gibbs, R-Grace. He said the motivation for the bill is the threat of lawsuits in to responders based in Utah’s Rich County, which borders Bear Lake County, Idaho, but it would affect all of Idaho’s neighboring states. ““I did not want to make this a Bear Lake issue,” Gibbs said. “It affects any out-of-stat responder.”

Gibbs said the lack of liability protection forces Utah law enforcement to take extra precautions. He said this leads to problems when police respond to incidents in Garden City, Utah, which is accessible by roads that go through Idaho. “If they have an emergency there, they come with lights on until they get to the Utah border, turn their lights off at the border, drive the speed limit back around through Idaho, and turn their lights on when they’re back in Utah.”

Gibbs said he has not seen similar problems along the Wyoming border, but has not looked into border problems with other states. “I have not examined the Montana border, nor Oregon or Washington,” he said. Gibbs also did not mention any issues with emergency responders along the Nevada border.

Sen. Michelle Stennett, D-Ketchum, said she had a personal experience along the Montana border where emergency responders from two states arrived at the scene of a car collision, and her mother was taken to the wrong hospital. “You could have an over-response and it’s chaos,” she said. No senators on the committee voted against the proposal, but Senate Minority Leader Kate Kelly, D-Boise said she was concerned about the unintended consequences of extending liability to non-Idaho emergency responders.

“There are unintended consequences, but most of them fall in favor of the state of Idaho,” said Senate President Pro Tem Bob Geddes, R-Soda Springs. He said firefighters from Utah helped with a fire at a grocery store in Preston in southeast Idaho, which the city’s volunteer fire department couldn’t contain by itself. “There’s a good likelihood that the entire Main Street could have burned,” Geddes said.

The legislation now head to the full Senate. Read the text of the legislation here.

The House voted earlier in the session to grant immunity to emergency workers from out of state who sometimes operate in Idaho.  Those workers, also working in “good faith,” would be shielded from lawsuits as a result of the legislation.  The bill, sponsored by Rep. Marc Gibbs, R-Grace, awaits a Senate hearing.

Killen said that the state has 31 search and rescue teams that can respond upon the call of a local sheriff.  At a previous hearing on the bill, Killen said that though not every county has one, teams are spread out geographically throughout the state.

Though teams throughout the state are typically comprised of volunteers to perform the work, not all volunteers who show up at a search would be covered by the protection.  The bill specifies that only search and rescue workers called on by a county sheriff would be granted immunity and only during the actual time of the search and rescue operation.  Killen said that though teams are comprised of volunteers, members are “well-trained and not just people off the street.”

Even with the protection in place, the provision wouldn’t offer complete immunity.  The bill states that a search and rescue must be acting in “good faith” and “with the absence of gross negligence.”  Those not meeting those requirements will still be subject to litigation, though a judge will be allowed to decide if a worker act with “gross negligence” if a lawsuit is brought forward.

Killen’s measure now joins Gibbs’ in the Senate.

Gibbs’ plan would allow emergency personnel from any state, not just those bordering Idaho, to receive immunity from lawsuits by citizens.  Gibbs said the legislation stems from a 1999 incident in which Rich County, Utah, was named as a defendant in a lawsuit as a result of one of its ambulance units working in Idaho.  The lawsuit was filed for $10 million, and the state of Idaho was also named as a defendant, but was dismissed from the suit because of Idaho law that protects the state from liability in the dispute.

In the committee hearing on the bill, Gibbs said he didn’t want to specify only states sharing the border with Idaho under the plan in case Idaho suffered a natural disaster requiring emergency personnel from faraway states to come to aid in cleanup and disaster recovery efforts.

The plan does not give responders complete immunity, however.  Those personnel who are shown to be acting recklessly or negligently during a rescue operation would still be liable for their actions.  Responders in Idaho are subject to the same rules.

The bill contains an emergency clause, which would make it law upon the signature of Gov. Butch Otter, should the measure be passed by the Senate.  Gibbs said the clause will allow the protections to go into effect before the Memorial Day weekend, which is the busiest time of the year at Bear Lake in southeastern Idaho.

(Note: Gibbs also successfully pushed through a bill hiking the fee on death certificates in Idaho by $1.  Read about it here.)

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Marc Gibbs, R-Grace, said the money generated would aid in the training of country coroners and other emergency personnel who help perform autopsies or determine the cause of death.  In the committee hearing on the bill, Gibbs estimated the fee hike would raise approximately $50,000 for coroner training.  The state currently charges $13 per copy for death certificates.

Rep. Jim Marriott, R-Blackfoot, opposed the legislation because he feels enough governmental entities take portions of the current fee assessed for certificates, and the move would hurt families who don’t have an option of purchasing the document.

Rep. Grant Burgoyne, D-Boise, also urged lawmakers to vote against the bill on that grounds that the state shouldn’t raise fees in such an unnecessary area when state budgets are facing steep cuts in more vital areas, such as education.

Rep. Anne Pasley-Stuart, D-Boise, spoke in favor of the bill, saying that low requirements for election of coroners necessitate the need for the training, which costs about $2,800 for each week-long session.

“We have to get them certified,” said Pasley-Stuart.

Gibbs’ co-sponsor on the bill, Rep. Tom Loerthscher, R- Iona, said the fee increase would aid smaller counties that have part-time coroners and lack resources to pay for ongoing education.

“I don’t like fee increases … I don’t think they are proper in every case,” said Loertscher, who added that this is one instance in which fee increases are necessary and proper.

Rep. Lenore Hardy Barrett, R-Challis, provided the final voice of opposition to the fee hike.  Barrett questioned the Gibbs’ bill, asking if coroners haven’t been performing adequately.  She also urged lawmakers to avoid “nickel and diming” citizens.

“This is not the right time to be doing it and not the right reason to be doing it,” said Barrett.

The bill passed the House 47-23 and now heads to the Senate.

Committee members voted to increase the cost to purchase a death certificate by $1 Tuesday.  The fee for buying a certificate is $13, which would increase to $14 if the legislation is passed by the full House and Senate.

Idaho’s fee is level with many surrounding states.  Utah’s fee for one copy is $16, while Montana’s is lower than Idaho’s at $12.  Oregon and Washington have the highest rates in the region, charging $20 for the first copy.

The move could generate as much as $50,000 a year, which would pooled into an account specifically designated to find ongoing education for county coroners.  One of the bill’s co-sponsors, Sen. Robert Geddes, R-Soda Springs, said that because county coroners face an ever-increasing and complex job description, there should be a mechanism in place to pay for conferences and trainings that coroners should attend.

Not everyone in attendance was thrilled with the potential fee increase.  James Aydelotte, representing the Center for Vital Statistics, the department that actually issues death certificates, said that though the fee may increase, families may not receive what they pay for.   Aydelotte noted that many hospital physicians declare cause of death, which is a primary function of a coroner, though the doctors wouldn’t receive additional taxpayer-funded training under the bill.  He also objected to a statewide pool of funds, saying that families in counties will have no guarantees that their respective coroners will receive a fair share of the training funds.

The measure now moves to the full House for a vote.  The measure is co-sponsored by Rep. Marc Gibbs, R-Grace.

(Note:  Rep. Gibbs had pitched another bill to protect out-of-state emergency responders from litigation in certain instances.  Read about that bill here.)

The House State Affairs approved a bill sponsored by Rep. Marc Gibbs, R-Grace, which he drafted in response to a tragedy at Bear Lake on the southern border of the state .  Gibbs said that in 1999, Rich County, Utah, was named as a defendant in a lawsuit as a result of one of its ambulance units working in Idaho.  The lawsuit was filed for $10 million, and the state of Idaho was also named as a defendant, but was dismissed from the suit because of Idaho law that protected the state from liability in the dispute.

Gibbs that said because of the lawsuit, the Rich County ambulance service will transport injured citizens to the state line and then wait for an ambulance from an Idaho county to come and take the victim to Bear County Hospital, which is the closest medical facility to the lake.  Gibbs calls that practice “unacceptable.”

Under the Gibbs plan, out-of-state responders would have the same protections offered to in-state responders.  Idaho code allows emergency responders, working in “good faith,” protection from liability in lawsuits.  The law doesn’t offer complete immunity from litigation, however.  Responders who are found to have caused an injury to an individual due to negligence or reckless behavior can still be made liable for a lawsuit.   Out-of-state emergency personnel would be subject to the same provisions.

Though it was derived from the Bear Lake incident on Idaho’s border with Utah, the bill is meant to protect all out-of-state responders, not only those from bordering states.  Gibbs said that he wants the state to be prepared in this policy area should Idaho sustain a natural disaster requiring the services of personnel from several other states.

The bill passed on a unanimous committee vote and now moves to the House floor for consideration.

Gibbs, during his testimony before the committee, said that the fee hike would enable the state to create a pool of money for ongoing education and re-education for county coroners.  He added that because many coroners are involved with determining causes of death, their education must be kept current.  Gibbs also said that many counties are concerned that their coroners, due to lack of training, often contaminate crime scenes.

Idaho’s fee is level with many surrounding states.  Utah’s fee for one copy is $16, while Montana’s is lower than Idaho’s at $12.  Oregon and Washington have the highest rates in the region, charging $20 for the first copy.

Gibbs said the fee hike could generate as much as $50,000 in additional revenue for the state per year.

The committee voted unanimously to support the proposal and will hear more testimony on the matter in upcoming weeks.  A list of the fees for death certificates can be found here.