Funeral Costs
This entry was written by Anna Hill, Fall Semester 2018 for an essay in the Funeral Education Class (FSE300) at American River College.
Funeral Costs
Anna Hill
FSE 300 LEC 10891
Extra Credit - NPR Funeral Costs
11/9/2018
FSE 300 LEC 10891
Extra Credit - NPR Funeral Costs
11/9/2018
This
paper is in response to the National Public Radio article, “Despite Decades –
Old Law, Funeral Prices are Unclear”. This article is concerning the federal
regulation called the Funeral Rule which is supposed to protect consumers by
requiring funeral businesses to provide a clear General Price List. This is
supposed to be enforced by the Federal Trade Commission.
This law was enacted in April of 1984 but was effective until 1994. This was designed to address misrepresentations in several areas, such as cash advance items, embalming, caskets for direct cremations, outer burial containers, legal and cemetery requirements and preservative vault claims. It is stipulated that the General Price List must acknowledge that the consumer has the right to choose the funeral goods and services that they desire but fall within legal guidelines.
Researching the Funeral Rule, one may think that the law is being enforced, but according to this article from NPR, that is not the case. Apparently, 1 out of every 4 funeral homes are actively getting away with failing to offer a General Price List. This is a shady business practice that the NPR says only about 75% of funeral homes follow, despite the risk of being cited with a heavy fine. This lack of disclosure tells me that there is a very good chance of price gouging going on within the funeral industry, which to me, is very unfortunate.
Being someone who is now a student, hoping to become a Funeral Director someday, this is disheartening to read about. My thoughts on handling death care is that it is our job as professionals to be advocates for the families we work with. We are not only caring for the dead but more so, the living. Our titles should be synonymous with advocates. Our job should be to ensure that each family we work with is given care that is not the only custom to their needs, but also their means. We should be doing what we can to find services that meet the needs of our clients financially and emotionally.
The fact that anyone within this industry could be so greedy to attempt to swindle grieving families is terrible.
In this article, we hear about the story of Ed Howard, a lawyer who specializes in Public Interest Law. He talks about how he spent an 8-hour day just trying to find a General Price List, so he could plan his father’s funeral after his sister had made a long attempt to do so herself. She was unable to do so.
Anyone who has ever been through the process of planning a funeral knows how arduous the task can be. As an industry, it should be the job of the funeral workers, to make this process as
Page 2 of 2
painless as possible. A family should not have to fight to find out the cost of basic services. Nor
should they be made to feel like they need to purchase services or items they do not need. Funerals are expensive enough. Dying is expensive.
This law was enacted in April of 1984 but was effective until 1994. This was designed to address misrepresentations in several areas, such as cash advance items, embalming, caskets for direct cremations, outer burial containers, legal and cemetery requirements and preservative vault claims. It is stipulated that the General Price List must acknowledge that the consumer has the right to choose the funeral goods and services that they desire but fall within legal guidelines.
Researching the Funeral Rule, one may think that the law is being enforced, but according to this article from NPR, that is not the case. Apparently, 1 out of every 4 funeral homes are actively getting away with failing to offer a General Price List. This is a shady business practice that the NPR says only about 75% of funeral homes follow, despite the risk of being cited with a heavy fine. This lack of disclosure tells me that there is a very good chance of price gouging going on within the funeral industry, which to me, is very unfortunate.
Being someone who is now a student, hoping to become a Funeral Director someday, this is disheartening to read about. My thoughts on handling death care is that it is our job as professionals to be advocates for the families we work with. We are not only caring for the dead but more so, the living. Our titles should be synonymous with advocates. Our job should be to ensure that each family we work with is given care that is not the only custom to their needs, but also their means. We should be doing what we can to find services that meet the needs of our clients financially and emotionally.
The fact that anyone within this industry could be so greedy to attempt to swindle grieving families is terrible.
In this article, we hear about the story of Ed Howard, a lawyer who specializes in Public Interest Law. He talks about how he spent an 8-hour day just trying to find a General Price List, so he could plan his father’s funeral after his sister had made a long attempt to do so herself. She was unable to do so.
Anyone who has ever been through the process of planning a funeral knows how arduous the task can be. As an industry, it should be the job of the funeral workers, to make this process as
Page 2 of 2
painless as possible. A family should not have to fight to find out the cost of basic services. Nor
should they be made to feel like they need to purchase services or items they do not need. Funerals are expensive enough. Dying is expensive.
I
have worked in the medical field for nearly 20 years. Many of these dishonest
practices I see being talked about in this article, I have seen happen within
the medical field. During hospital stays, people will be charged for items and
services they have used during their stay. Medical staff can indiscriminately
charge items or services to patients' bills. For example, we had a machine that
we would retrieve items from. The way we went about it, we would grab an item
and give a room number to charge it to, even if the patient didn’t need it.
Something as simple as an extra bottle of shampoo can be charged, and the
patient would be none- the -wiser unless they were to look at their itemized
charges when they leave. Most do not.
Same goes for the Funeral Industry. Consumers expect that the professionals will be honest and only charge the consumer for necessary services. Most are too distraught to even question when a professional tells them they need something.
This to me wreaks of that slimy used car salesman mentality. Any way to weasel in a few extras to make a buck. This is not a good way to conduct business, especially in an industry that should be built on compassion and integrity.
I was, however, pleased when they spoke to Will Chang. He is a guy who heads a startup that collected data on funeral homes to find out who provides a GPL and who does not. He stated that while he was met with quite a bit of resistance from the funeral home to provide their price list, the younger funeral directors were on board with his study.
This gives me hope that future Funeral Directors, like myself, will be more compassion-driven to not only provide the best possible death care but also the type of care that caters to the needs of grieving families.
Same goes for the Funeral Industry. Consumers expect that the professionals will be honest and only charge the consumer for necessary services. Most are too distraught to even question when a professional tells them they need something.
This to me wreaks of that slimy used car salesman mentality. Any way to weasel in a few extras to make a buck. This is not a good way to conduct business, especially in an industry that should be built on compassion and integrity.
I was, however, pleased when they spoke to Will Chang. He is a guy who heads a startup that collected data on funeral homes to find out who provides a GPL and who does not. He stated that while he was met with quite a bit of resistance from the funeral home to provide their price list, the younger funeral directors were on board with his study.
This gives me hope that future Funeral Directors, like myself, will be more compassion-driven to not only provide the best possible death care but also the type of care that caters to the needs of grieving families.
To me, this is what the funeral industry is about. That is an industry I want to be a part of.
Comments
Post a Comment