Funeral industry is taken aback by county fee added for cremations

Cremations in King County will become $50 more expensive next month because of an item in the county budget that caught some in the funeral and cremation business off-guard.

The County Council approved the fee — the first of its kind in the state — Nov. 20 along with its 2008 budget. It also required that all county death cases be reviewed by the medical examiner before the bodies are cremated.

The $50 will raise about $352,000 a year for the county Medical Examiner's Office; the money will be used to pay for two and a half new employees to deal with the paperwork and additional investigations related to the new requirement, said Gareth Johnson, manager of Public Health — Seattle & King County.

But some in the funeral industry are concerned about the fee — saying they weren't notified and it makes the already expensive funeral process even costlier.

John Eric Rolfstad, executive director of the People's Memorial Association, a funeral consumer organization, said his group didn't find out about the fee until after it was approved by the council.

Rolfstad said the fee often places a burden on people who have chosen cremation because they can't afford a burial. In general, the least expensive cremation costs about $650, while the least-expensive burial costs about $5,000.

The new cremation fee also is unfair to people whose religion requires cremation, he said.

"Basically, what we're saying is ... if a Christian wants a burial they're not going to pay the tax, but if you're a Sikh or a Hindu or a religion that requires cremation, you're going to have to pay the tax," Rolfstad said. "It feels like something was put in place quickly and wasn't really thought through."

There are about 8,000 cremations in the county each year, compared with about 3,600 burials, Rolfstad said.

Public Health — Seattle & King County, which oversees the Medical Examiner's Office, asked for the fee to address a "compelling regulatory concern," Johnson said. The concern is that some deaths in which there might have been foul play aren't being investigated because the medical examiner is not notified of the death, he said.

In those cases, a funeral director or the family acquired a death certificate but never reported the death to the medical examiner, Johnson said.

Paperwork eventually goes to a state office that reviews the deaths, and if there's something suspicious it is sent to the medical examiner. By that time, the Medical Examiner's Office realizes it has no record of the death, but the body has already been cremated, Johnson said.

"As you'd imagine, if the body has been cremated before we learn about the death, it's pretty hard to do an autopsy on it," Johnson said.

Not all of those deaths are the result of foul play, but if even one is, it's too many, Johnson said.

Under the new regulations, funeral directors or families will need to receive a cremation permit from the medical examiner before they're allowed to cremate the body, Johnson said. The permit will be issued when the office receives information about the death and the $50 fee is paid.

In most cases, the funeral director will coordinate obtaining the permit, Johnson said.

Burials won't require the permit.

Rolfstad said his organization hopes to have the matter revisited.

Johnson said it's important to understand that the requirement wasn't created to raise money for the Medical Examiner's Office, but to provide an obstacle to covering up foul play.

Brian Alexander: 206-464-2026 or balexander@seattletimes.com