Friday was March 15 or the “Ides of March”.  And, it appears that Friday, March 15, 2024, was a better day for funeral service than Friday, March 15, 44 BC was for Julius Caesar.

 

Funeral service has been hit with a lot of bad publicity lately about certain funeral providers not always doing the ethically correct application and we’ve had tough business situations brought about by inflation and higher than normal interest rates of late.  In spite of not always getting good news on differing subjects, most funeral directors continue to give great service to families that call them.  However, last Friday a couple of things happened that can only be thought of as “good news” for the profession and should allow us, at least for some time, to put a little bounce back in our steps.

 

First of all, on Friday the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), issued a draft of their study of formaldehyde in the workplace and they concluded, in part that formaldehyde can still be used in death care, according to a release by the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA):

 

“(On Friday) the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its draft of its determination of the health and environmental risks of formaldehyde under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for comment and peer review. NFDA and funeral service secured a major victory when the draft risk assessment indicated that formaldehyde used for embalming would not be subject to regulations under TSCA.”

 

And secondly, funeral service learned that a bill was introduced into the United States Congress that asks that consumers with Health Savings Accounts (HSA) be authorized to pay funeral expenses from these accounts.  Here’s a quote from the author of the bill, Oklahoma Representative Kevin Hern that appeared in this press release from NFDA on Friday:

 

“The death of a loved one is already a solemn and stressful time; there is no reason why overly burdensome red tape should get in the way of those facing a tough loss. When hard-working Americans choose to open and contribute to tax-benefitted HSA accounts, they do it so they can choose the best health services for them – both when opening an account and in the future. Death often comes at the end of a battle with one’s health, and we shouldn’t punish their loved ones by excluding funeral expenses from being used from someone’s leftover HSA funds.”

 

Funeral Director Daily take:

Formaldehyde Information — At the NFDA National Convention in Las Vegas last Fall I visited with several representatives of mortuary chemical companies and the idea of formaldehyde being banned concerned them.  So, this is very good news moving forward.

 

Yes, less of the deceased population is embalmed in this era of ever-increasing cremation dispositions.  But, even looking forward, it is expected that about 20% of United States deaths will be embalmed and buried.  With a number of 3 million deaths nationwide annually that is still a ballpark figure of 600,000 embalmed bodies annually.  That is still a considerable number that the chemical companies will be able to provide embalming fluids for.

 

Funeral Expenses from Health Savings Accounts —  This is a smart and practical solution that should be added to the qualified expenses from Health Savings Accounts (HSA).  However, it is just being introduced and there may be obstacles in getting the bill passed.  No one, at least of late, has ever accused Congress of being “smart and practical” so maybe there is a longer road than we might expect for this issue to come to reality.

 

In theory, for those that take advantage of this opportunity the law would, in essence, have their funeral or other death care expenses be tax deductible because when you contribute to your HSA account you get a tax deduction in the year that you do so.  So, even though you may pay your funeral bill years later, it is with money that has been put into the HSA and the year that you did so, you received a tax deduction for doing so.

 

As I look back, it is difficult for me to find areas where Congress has allowed consumers to have “tax deductible” payments for consumer goods or services that were not health care or education related.  Doing this for funeral expenses seems to me that Congress is deeming funeral expenses as “Health Care”.

 

I don’t know if that is a good or bad thing, but it also seems to me that people, especially those that are not friends of fuenral service, have tried to keep funeral expenses out of “Health Care” nomenclature for decades.  It will be interesting to see the discussions and how this moves through Congress.

 

My wife and I have had HSA’s for years and love them.  We contributed the maximum amounts for years and have built up fairly large, for an HSA, values.  It’s especially great to have them now and to pay out-of-pocket health care costs out of the accounts, because it seems like it is not coming out of our general spending.

 

It’s also interesting to note on what might happen with Preneed payments.  Will the proposed legislation let an HSA account holder set-up a Preneed account using existing HSA funds?  That would seem to be using “tax-deductible” dollars for what would be a future consumer purchase.  It will be interesting to see the comments on that type of thought or use by the members of Congress.

 

Finally, HSA account values are set up to diminish over time as evidenced that once you are a Medicare recipient at approximately age 65 I’m under the impression that you can no longer contribute to HSA accounts — just spend what is in them.  The average age of death in the United States is slightly over 77 years of age at present.  If HSA’s are going to be counted on to pay for funeral expenses at the time of death I can see a need to lift this post-Medicare contribution ban.

 

 

Thank NFDA — In any regard, these two items are two “Good News” items for the Death Care profession.  There may be many people to thank for their advocacy in moving these items forward, but probably no person or organization deserves any more credit for this than the folks and Board Members at the National Funeral Directors Association!

 

NFDA has also announced that they will be conducting a webinar on March 27 to inform us more about the formaldehyde standard and its implications.  You can learn more about and register for that event here.

 

More news from the world of Death Care:

• ASIC win appeal against Youpla for misleading indigenous consumers.  Insurance Business
• Green burials coming to Blacksburg.  Video news story and print article.  Channel 10 – NBC News – Roanoke (VA)
• With cremation growing in popularity, a set-back bill is debated at Annapolis.  Baltimore Brew (MD)
• Hoffman, Buhrig funeral homes sell to Minnesota-based company.  The Daily Item (PA)

 

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