In 2023, in an effort to ensure vital records were up to date and accurate, the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) became the first state to partner with the National
Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems (NAPHSIS). The goal was to leverage NAPHSIS’ Electronic Verification of Vital Events – Fact of Death service, which enabled the MVA to compare its vital records with those of NAPHSIS’ other 42 participating jurisdictions.

“When someone passes away, it’s critical that records are updated so no one can take advantage of that individual’s personal information or benefits, and so families are protected from fraud,” says Chrissy Nizer, administrator of the MVA at the Maryland Department of Transportation. “We already work closely with Maryland’s vital records office to ensure deaths that occur in-state are reflected in our system as quickly as possible. When we learned NAPHSIS could help verify deaths that occur out of state, we thought this process could be a natural way to improve the accuracy of our records.”

As part of the initial implementation, the MVA uploaded 7.7 million records for comparison with NAPHSIS data. Nizer says the two organizations’ IT teams needed a few months to integrate systems, but the process was relatively straightforward. Once the records were entered for comparison, 85% were exact matches, requiring no extra work from the MVA team. The remaining 15% were partial matches, and the MVA team verified them relatively easily. In the end, of the 7.7 million records, 178,000 needed to be updated and marked as deceased.

Maryland completed its initial process in December 2023 and repeated it in August 2024. Nizer says they will repeat the process annually. Because the bulk of the work was done the first year, she says the second year was much less intensive.

In addition to protecting families from fraud, Nizer adds that the process also helps correct instances in which individuals were mistakenly marked as deceased in other jurisdictions.

This process is not only affordable—$7,700 for the first year—but it also saves the state money by eliminating the mailing of license renewal notices to deceased individuals. “It’s much more efficient for the state,” Nizer says. “Per license renewal cycle, we estimate $112,000 in savings. It also spares families the emotional impact of receiving those notices in the mail.”

For this initiative, the MVA received AAMVA’s 2025 Region 1: Improvement Through Efficiencies Award. “I think that’s a great example of how you can implement something that has a minimal investment, but has a high impact on government efficiency and saves money,” Nizer says. “Also, it reflects our compassion for our residents. So it was a win-win all around.”