The State of West Virginia Health and Human Resources Department requires all suspected drug overdose deaths to be transported to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office at the state morgue, autopsied, and a toxicology report must be made in an attempt to pinpoint what exactly caused the death.  After this is done the State then has to pay for the transportation to the family’s choice of funeral home.

In the latest fiscal year, which ended on June 30, West Virginia announced that they had transported 4,200 bodies compared to 2,200 two years prior according to an article in the West Virginia Gazette Mail.  The State of Virginia also noted that they paid a total of $881,620 for this service — more than double the amount from two years prior.  According to the article, 880 of the deaths were actually confirmed as drug overdoses – a record number – that places West Virginia with the worst drug overdose death rate in the nation.

The article goes on to tell that one firm – Tri-State Mortuary Transportation – has been paid over $3.2 million for these services over the last 14 years.  The article also claims that in 2012 Tri-State received 94% of the State Morgue’s transportation business.  According to the article, Tri-State has been suspended from mortuary transportation services since August.  On September 8, 2017, Tri-State notified the State that it will fight this suspension.

It is interesting to note that Tri-State Mortuary Transportation is owned by Chad Harding.  Mr. Harding has had other issues with the State of Virginia that we wrote about here.

Funeral Director Daily take:  This is an interesting article. The use of opioid pain killers is being examined for how they can still be prescribed for pain but rendered ineffective for addiction. Limiting their use or numbers is one way that is being talked about.  It is a sad state that prescribed medication can cause this addiction issue if used too long.

I found it interesting as I started to read this article and the issue of Tri-State Mortuary Transportation came up and its affiliation with the other issues that have cropped up with its owner.  From an outsider’s perspective it just seems like it is one of those times where you say, “You can’t make this stuff up.”

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