K. Any cause when there is no attending physician capable of certifying the death as due to natural causes. When a person dies who is under the care of a religious practitioner who uses prayer and spiritual means of healing, the fact that the deceased has been under such religious care does not warrant suspicion of foul play or investigation beyond that warranted by the other facts of the case.

In any case in which the necessity of a report is questionable, a report must be made.

Sec. 4. 22 MRSA §3025, sub-§1-A is enacted to read:

1-A.__Medical examiner case determination.__Notwithstanding that a case must be reported under subsection 1, the acceptance of any reported death as a medical examiner case is to be determined by the Chief Medical Examiner unless acceptance is specifically ordered by the Attorney General or district attorney having jurisdiction.

The following deaths that must be reported need not be accepted by the Chief Medical Examiner as a medical examiner case:

A.__Deaths due to the consequences of long-term alcohol use, long-term exposure to environmental or occupational toxins or long-term exposure to carcinogens;

B.__Deaths in the elderly who have sustained limb or axial fractures, excluding the head, for which they are or have been hospitalized; or

C.__Sudden natural deaths in the elderly who have not had previous specific symptoms or who were not under treatment by a physician for the specific natural cause that is considered to be the cause of death.

These reportable deaths may be referred back to the attending physician by the Chief Medical Examiner for certification of the death, even though the attending physician has not treated the patient for the specific natural disease that the attending physician will enter as the physician's diagnosis.

Sec. 5. 22 MRSA §3025, sub-§2, as amended by PL 2001, c. 222, §5, is repealed.