11/25/2009 — The Massachusetts Division of Public Licensure has found 25 percent of funeral homes they inspected were illegally hiding prices from consumers. Click here for the report, and the names of the accused funeral homes (and hats off to the state for such diligent work, and for making the information public).
Sadly, this isn't a surprise. As we've noted for years, there's widespread violation of the FTC Funeral Rule, even though it's been in place 25 years. According to the MDPL, these funeral homes were violating the most basic, reasonable requirement of the Rule — the mandate to give consumers itemized price lists at the beginning of an arrangements discussion. Without that price list, grief-stricken families have no idea how much the funeral might cost, or what their options are.Kudos to the MDPL—they sent out inspectors posing as grieving families to see how funeral homes really treated their "customers." This a far better approach than showing up for an announced inspection, which alerts scoundrels to be on their best behavior.
Some funeral homes, and the state's trade association, are keen to find excuses. According to the Milford Daily News, accused violator James. P Ginley said, "If I do something wrong, shame on me." But the News noted Ginley "insist[ed] his funeral home was in compliance and the inspectors weren't properly trained to know whether they were seeing real violations."
Not likely. It takes no special expertise or training to know that failing to give consumers price lists at the beginning of the discussion is a clear, unequivocal violation of the Funeral Rule.
The Massachusetts Funeral Directors Association is insisting some of its member mortuaries must be innocent. "We firmly believe that many of these funeral homes will be exonerated as the process moves along," David Walkinshaw, a spokesman for the MFDA, told the News.
Maybe, but on what basis does MFDA "firmly believe" this? Inspections from around the country reveal similar levels of FTC violations. It's an ongoing scandal that so many funeral homes continue to deceive grieving people. A responsible trade association ought to at least express dismay, and promise to get to the bottom of the trouble. Scofflaws do no credit to any membership organization, and neither does making excuses for them.
If the Division now tries to penalize the violators they may have a problem. Unless the test shoppers explicitly requested the GPL and were then refused a copy the FH didn't violate the MA regulations. The Board deliberately didn't incorporate the whole FTC Funeral Rule by reference.
The regulations instead say that "No person who is registered with the Board, nor any person who holds an ownership interest in or is employed by any funeral establishment licensed by the Board, shall fail or refuse to give a general price list containing all information required by 15 CFR Part 453 to any person who requests one in person." So you have to ask for a GPL and it is the duty of any employee to give it to you. To fail to give the requested GPL is an offense by the individual, not by the funeral establishment, so the establishment name won't even appear in any disciplinary records.
But the news release says that 18 of the tested FHs "employed unlicensed personnel – and not a licensed funeral director – to handle discussions with the undercover inspectors." A "licensed funeral director" is one a narrow sub-class of "registered funeral director," one who holds at least 10% voting interest (but not necessarily any economic interest) in the funeral establishment. They say that the employee who must give you a GPL if you ask for it must not discuss it with you or answer any questions unless he is a "licensed funeral director." That is really ridiculous!
The complaint forms also allege that some of the FH representatives failed to "furnish a business card." Wow!
So the real benefit of the sweeps was in the publicity given to the alleged violations. Historically the Division has published only Final Decisions and Consent Agreements.
Byron Blanchard
byron@n1ekv.org