Death certificates; vital statistics; records; confidential; exceptions; effective date.

HB 1748 restricts access to death certificates to specific groups, including family members, legal representatives, government agencies (like the DMV for license cancellation), and entities verifying benefits (e.g., insurance companies), while prohibiting unauthorized disclosure. It mandates that death certificates become publicly available 50 years after death and establishes an online index of death records with a 5-year delay for data inclusion. The bill allows electronic verification of death records for government, insurance, and legal purposes at a $4 fee (waivable for state agencies), and requires the Department of Health to share death data with agencies like Medicaid and the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office for administrative purposes. It does not create new programs but updates existing access rules for vital statistics records.