Indigent funeral cost concerns

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December 12, 2007

By DENISE A. RAYMO The Press Republican Wed Dec 12, 2007, 11:00 PM EST

MALONE -- Funeral directors will meet with Franklin County legislators next month to lobby for better reimbursements when they provide services to the poor.

It has been a long-standing issue because the directors say they lose money every time they conduct an indigent funeral.

Funeral homes in the county say they provide about $4,000 worth of services for each of these burials, but the county's reimbursement rate is $1,850, plus the cost of the concrete vault.

The rate had been $1,650 until funeral directors presented their case to legislators in the fall of 2005.

In March 2006, the $200-per-case increase was approved.

Tupper Lake Republican Paul Maroun, who chairs the Administrative Committee, said he will call a meeting of all interested funeral directors in January to discuss their concerns again.

CORONER PAY

In a related matter for the Administrative Committee, the county's coroners were recently before the legislature to ask for a clarification in their work hours to determine how they are paid.

Ronald Keough of Saranac Lake told legislators that coroners essentially work for nothing if they have more than one call a day under the single per-diem pay schedule, even though they may be out for several hours over succeeding days.

"The county is getting a bonus," he said, because coroners were getting paid $60 per day when they should have gotten more like $120 for their assigned services.

The language clarification establishes per diem as a 24-hour period from midnight to midnight.

The next step was making the adopted per-diem-rate change retroactive to Jan. 1, 2007, when the new rules were supposed to kick in.

Calculations show that of the four coroners, only Keough would have retroactive pay coming, in the amount of $360.

draymo@pressrepublican.com