Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

The eighth paragraph of section 2 of chapter 38 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 1998 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the first sentence the following sentence:- If a medical examiner conducts an autopsy on a body of a deceased person who within six months before the date of death received services from a facility or program operated, contracted for, or licensed by the department of mental health, the office of the chief medical examiner shall provide a copy of the autopsy report, upon request, to the commissioner of mental health for the purpose of completing an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death, if a next of kin does not object thereto.