AB-2598 Health care facilities: notification of next of kin

What happened

AB 2598 proposes requiring general acute care hospitals and skilled nursing facilities to make reasonable attempts to notify known next of kin of a death, including specified post-death transfers to a hospital. The proposed definition is a documented good-faith contact effort within seventy-two hours using available contact information. It recognizes the designated resident-representative route and a person’s prior written request against notification. If the specified conditions require county public-administrator notice, the text gives a separate two-business-day requirement and identifies information to assist the administrator.

The proposed penalties distinguish failure to attempt known-next-of-kin notification from failure to notify the public administrator. Each has a 200-dollar daily amount and 50,000-dollar maximum, but the latter’s penalty measurement begins on the fifth business day after death; that does not erase the separate two-business-day notice requirement. A licensee can request a hearing within ten working days of penalty notification. Known next of kin is defined, and incarcerated people in state corrections custody are excluded under the specified rules. During the covered week these are proposed duties, not a new enacted penalty assessed against a facility.

Why it matters

Reasonable contact efforts, exceptions, administrator notice and penalty measurement use different records and clocks.

Sources

• AB-2598 Health care facilities: notification of next of kin, bill historyOfficial · California Legislature · 2026-08-30 · Source review 2026-09-10
• AB-2598 Health care facilities: notification of next of kin, current bill text (09/03/26 - Enrolled)Official · California Legislature · 2026-09-03 · Source review 2026-09-10