Spring 2016 Newsletterv2

FCAME Newsletter - Spring 2016 ! Plain Talk From the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Maryland & Environs (FCAME) Home funerals need planning & assistance Conducting a funeral at home can be a nurse practitioner in charge of the on the death certificate form that asks rewarding and memorable experience, individual’s care (or a medical for the signature of the funeral service but it helps to plan for it in advance and to examiner if a death is unexpected) licensee. On the line that says “name have the participation of family members must partially fill out the death and address of facility”, the individual and friends. certificate (indicating date, hour and should write “Family with right to cause of death) and sign it before a disposition.” Page two of the death Home funerals used to be the way we body can be released for transport. certificate provides the burial transit cared for our dead. That’s when we had permit that must accompany the a more family-centered existence, When a death occurs in a nursing remains when being transported. multiple generations often lived in the home, hospice or hospital, that facility same home, and life was less fast-paced will supply the death certificate. When A body is supposed to be removed than it is now. a death occurs at home, the attending from a nursing home or hospice within physician or nurse usually will provide 4 hours after death (as they have no Today, commemorating the life of a family the death certificate; the State Office of provision for temporary storage of a member or friend in an intimate home Vital Records can supply a blank death body) and from a hospital within 24 environment is still possible. Maryland, certificate, if needed. hours. Such institutions are used to DC and Delaware law support the right having a funeral establishment or body of the family to care for their own In Maryland, the family member or transport service hired by a funeral departed. However, in DC, disposition of friend with the right to disposition for establishment pick up the deceased the body must be by a licensed mortician the deceased who wants to do a home from their premises to transport the or funeral director if the death was due to funeral can sign their name on the line (continued on page 2) a contagious or infectious disease. Attempts to weaken cemetery laws thwarted In a home celebration, friends and family Two legislative proposals introduced on behalf of the Maryland Cemetery, Funeral have more time for visiting, story-telling, and Cremation Association that would have weakened consumer protections singing, music, ceremony, viewing the involving cemeteries went down to defeat at the urging of FCAME during the body, and finding closure than often is recently concluded session of the Maryland General Assembly. possible when a funeral establishment handles a funeral. Home funerals can One legislative proposal FCAME supported that would have increased consumer have the added benefit of being much protections regarding sale or purchase of human remains unfortunately also was less expensive. defeated. It helps to have envisioned what one The first piece of legislation FCAME opposed that was defeated, House Bill wants for a home funeral ahead of time to 553 / Senate Bill 535, proposed that a financial balance sheet from the most lessen the number of decisions that need recent Federal tax return filed by each cemetery be submitted to the State’s to be made after a death has occurred, Office of Cemetery Oversight (OCO) every other year. This submission would be and so that various responsibilities can in place of the current requirement that a statement from a Certified Public be defined and delegated to different Accountant (CPA) detailing the assets and liabilities of each cemetery along with friends and family members. What an assessment of the financial stability of the business be submitted to OCO. follows are some of the tasks that need to be handled. As FCAME Vice President Brian Ditzler explained in testimony presented at committee hearings in both the House of Delegates and Senate, the industry’s First off, decisions are needed concerning proposal would have been bad for consumers. Here’s why. what activities will occur while the body is at the home, who should be invited to Cemeteries receive money from consumers often many years before the products each activity, and what food and possibly and services paid for in advance will need to be provided to the purchaser. The music needs to be arranged for. Maryland General Assembly was well aware of past problems with missing pre- paid funds as well as mismanaged, neglected and abandoned cemeteries Once death occurs, the physician or (continued on page 3) ! PAGE 1 FCAME Newsletter - Spring 2016 ! Home funerals need planning and assistance (continued from p.1) body to a funeral establishment, fully completed first page of the death must be contacted beforehand to crematory, or possibly a private home. certificate must be filed with the determine if there are any local State’s Office of Vital Statistics or the ordinances and regulations that apply, However, if the family has the desire local Health Department within 72 hours and because the location where the and ability to transport the body in a after the death. In DC, the death body will be buried must be entered into personal vehicle, the institution should certificate must be filed with the the plat for that land (which may affect agree to release the body as long as Registrar within five days after death resale value of the property). A burial the family member has the paperwork and before final disposition of the body, should be 150 feet or more from a to prove he/she has the legal right to which must occur within one week. water supply, with at least two feet of disposition. A quick phone call to the earth in top, and not be adjacent to a State Board of Morticians and Funeral If a consumer encounters problems with property line. Directors may be necessary to allay the any of the legal requirements relating to institution’s concerns. doing a home funeral in Maryland, the After the home funeral is concluded, Executive Director of the State Board of those who used a private vehicle to If the assistance of a funeral Morticians and Funeral Directors is transport the body home can transport establishment is desired to transport happy to provide guidance and answer the body to a cemetery or crematory. A a body to a private home and to pick it questions (410 764-4792). cemetery will need to see the death up afterwards, and possibly to help with certificate and the transit permit. the death certificate and other matters The crematory or cemetery that the (such as a cremation), you may have to consumer plans to use should be If total cost is a concern, it’s important contact a number of establishments to contacted as soon after the death as to know that burial in a cemetery will find one willing to do this. A full practical and agreement reached on: usually cost much more than a discussion with the funeral home is necessary arrangements (if this was not cremation, assuming the cremated needed beforehand, as is a signed done beforehand), what the total costs remains will not be buried in a contract that specifies the services will be, and when the body will be cemetery. See articles on FCAME ‘s agreed on and the total cost. delivered to their premises. As with website, www.mdfunerals.org, for more funeral homes, crematories and information on options available and It is important to know that funeral cemeteries have the right to decline to their costs. establishments have the right to: do business with anyone other than a decline to transport a body to and from licensed mortician. For a cremation to occur in Maryland, a private home, decline to sign a death the crematory operator must be certificate for a body not in their A container or casket needs to have provided the death certificate, the possession, and decline to accept a been purchased from a funeral transit permit, and a cremation body after a home funeral because they establishment, cemetery or over the authorization form filled out and signed don’t want the liability for a body that Internet, or built at home to hold the by the individual with the right to has not remained in their possession. body once it’s brought home. The disposition and also signed by the advantage of having a simple covered crematory operator. In addition, the The individual acting in place of a box, or an unfinished wooden or body must be identified by the individual funeral director will need to finish filling cardboard casket is that it can be with the right to disposition or that out the death certificate form within 72 stenciled, written or drawn on by family individual’s designee. The operator hours after the death in Maryland, and members before and during the home also must document that at least 12 within 48 hours in DC and Delaware. funeral. hours have elapsed from the time of Information that must be written on the death of the individual whose remains form includes the decedent’s social Dry ice needs to be purchased and put are to be cremated. security number, age at death, date and under the body to help preserve it if the country of birth, address, citizenship, body will be at home for more than 24 In DC and Delaware, a special marital status, race, education hours.

Load more