Chelsea Bossert/Daily Mining Gazette New laws aim to help Funeral Homes such as Memorial Chapel in Hancock to run smoothly and ensure death certificates are filed within 48 hours. 

HANCOCK — Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a pair of bipartisan bills March 17 aiming to streamline the process of creating and certifying death certificates in Michigan.

HB 4077 and 4078, now Public Acts 3 and 4 of 2026, simplify language and the process doctors, physicians, funeral directors and court clerks undergo to establish death records.

According to a press release from the Governor’s office, the bills will remove barriers and make it more accessible for everyone involved in the death certification process — from evaluation to filing.

“These bipartisan bills expedite the process for certification and require a death certificate to be filed within 48 hours using a secure web-based system through the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services,” the releases stats. “A timely death certificate helps families with burial arrangements, estate planning, and insurance claims.”

Memorial Chapel Funeral Home and Cremation Director, Neil Ahola, says the bills will make sure every funeral home coordinates with doctors and clerks to file death certificates with the state of Michigan within a 48-hour period.

“Any time a death certificate is filed it has to go through a funeral home in the state of Michigan,” he said. “Each death that we help out with we make sure the certificate is filed within a timely fashion.”

Ahola added he is not certain this will have a big impact, but he is happy that these guardrails are going to become commonplace.

“[The bills are] definitely going to help out,” he said. “Is it going to be a game changer? At this point I have a hard time saying that it will go that far.”

Memorial Chapel has funeral homes in three locations in Houghton County: one in Hancock, South Range and Chassel. According to Michigan Funeral Directors Association Executive Director, Phil Duma, these new requirements will make it easier for funeral homes in rural areas to operate.

“This legislation should help foster a great improvement in medical certification and death registration in rural communities,” he said. “By bringing medical certification entirely online, that should greatly improve and facilitate that medical certification.”

Duma and the MFDA were a part of the many groups who pushed for HB 4077 and 4078 to be written and signed into law.

“It was a broad coalition that was involved in working with legislators in the development and in the supporting of this legislation,” he said.

According to the legislature section of michigan.gov, both HB 4077 and HB 4078 were introduced in February of 2025 and took more than a year to fully become law. Public Acts 3 and 4 of 2026 take immediate effect and could impact everyone involved with certifying a death in Michigan.

“Funeral directors understand how important it is for grieving families and to public health that death certificates be filed in a timely manner,” Duma said. “House Bills 4077 and 4078 will help achieve that.”