What to know about Death Care in DC

October 16, 2023/Business, Regulations/

As you know there are always issues going on in our nation’s capital of Washington, DC. And, some of those issues will touch on the business of Death Care.

Today from my latest observations, some things I’ve researched, and some of the things I took in at the recent National Funeral Directors Association convention in Las Vegas, I’ll give you my thoughts on what is happening.

At this point in time those in the Death Care profession, most specifically those that own and operate funeral homes, should be aware of at least three items that I keep hearing about.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) review of the “Funeral Rule” — This seems like it has been going on forever, but the fact of the matter is, in my opinion, the FTC will sometime in 2024 decide on the outcome of this review. And, my personal opinion is that once all the testimony is given, the FTC will have a difficult time in not pushing forward with some type of increased “price transparency” for the profession.

Given the fact that the American consumer is becoming more and more accustomed to shopping online, my guess is that consumer advocacy groups will succeed in pushing the FTC to make this move. It won’t be because of a lack of effort by our advocates, such as NFDA, and funeral home operators themselves warning the FTC that the “services” offered by differing death care providers cannot be easily compared in written or website format.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

I just think that there is tremendous pressure from some consumer advocacy groups for this rule. It seems to get a higher and higher profile every time somebody argues that they were not treated as expected by the death care provider that they chose. And, while those circumstances are, by percentage, very small with death care clientele, they do seem to carry more than their equal weight of evidence when they do occur.

My thought process for this probable decision also centers a little on the “politics of DC”. I’m of the opinon that the party in power in DC at this time is not very “business friendly” when it comes to regulations. There may be some desire by the FTC to wrap up the funeral rule business before the next Presidential election when the direction of the FTC could change due to other party government appointments.

If I was operating a funeral home today I would start to prepare for the “New Funeral Rule” which I believe will more than likely have internet price disclosure requirements. One such company that might be able to help you with that task is Strategic Funeral Resources who have web-based price disclosure formats that can be designed for individual funeral homes. You can access their website here.

Here’s an article from NFDA on this potential policy decision. The article is entitled “The Funeral Rule — The FTC’s proposed changes and why they do harm.”

The “Toxic Substance Control Act” and the use of Formaldehyde — This is an issue that was new to me and I really learned some initial facts about the issue during the NFDA convention.

The “long and short” of this issue is that from time to time the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) takes a look at chemicals in use and assesses if they are harmful to the users or the environment. Evidently, formaldehyde is either under review of at risk of being under review at this time.

Here’s an article from NFDA entitled “Formaldehyde — A vital tool under threat”

While there are “formaldehyde free” solutions available from certain chemical companies for use in the funeral home market, I think that a potential ban on formaldehyde in the funeral business would be devastating to the industry. Part of my thinking is that before that would happen there would probably be a great discussion on the idea and that discussion, in itself, might simply turn many potential future traditional burial clientele against earth burial.

Again, in my opinion, proving the worth of formaldehyde and using exposure data for funeral directors that puts our use safely under any EPA or Toxic Substances Contol Act acceptable safety numbers is important moving forward.

The Department of Labor’s proposal for white-collar exemptions to the Overtime rules — This potential rule has the potential to drive up Death Care prices as well as drive up administration costs by changing the rules on who may or may not be eligible for overtime pay.

There is currently criteria that makes most funeral directors exempt from “overtime pay”. Parts of that criteria include being paid a “salary” and being paid a salary that is currently more than $35,568. Regardless of other criteria that may be being considered, one proposed change is that the Department of Labor is contemplaing making that minimum salary for non-overtime workers $60,209 as compared to the current $35,568.

The issue comes, as I see it, in that most funeral directors are paid over $35,568 in salary for a full-year making those funeral directors ineligible for overtime pay. By making the required minimum salary $60,209 for this purpose would put many of today’s funeral directors in a category where there hours would have to be recorded and they would be awarded overtime pay or stopped at a certain number of hours per week.

Either way, it may be argued, would cause businesses to pay out more for the same amount of work. . . either in overtime pay or having to hire additional staffing once overtime hours would be reached.

According to an email that I received, NFDA is working with a group called The Partnership to Protect Workplace Opportunity in trying to stem the adoption of these new standards.

Related — Here is a press release from The Partnership to Protect Workplace Opportunity website about the proposed adoption of this new standard by the Department of Labor.

More news from the world of Death Care: