what happens to people when nobody can afford to bury them

April 05, 2022 Post a Comment

Posted: Mar 28, 2018 / 06:30 PM EDT

Updated: Mar 28, 2018 / 06:thirty PM EDT

AGAWAM, Mass. (WWLP) – Nigh people like to call back that later they die, they'll be memorialized at a service, surrounded past grieving family members, simply that's not the case for everyone.

Worcester Funeral Director Peter Stefan is at the forefront of a growing trouble; burial hundreds of people who die every year, with no family unit and no money.

They're referred to as "unclaimed," a characterization for someone who dies without family, or whose family waives any claim to them. Unclaimed bodies are treated equally "indigent," someone who died in poverty.

Over the by year alone, Stefan told the I-Squad he has buried between forty to l unclaimed bodies. "I've had ix here in the past calendar week and a half, and I have some other one today they chosen me on, plus this woman we picked upward yesterday. No money, no family."

The Function of the Medical Examiner must hold unclaimed bodies until they discover a funeral director willing to selection them up. If the office can't identify a trunk, can't notice side by side of kin, or the next of kin waives all claim to the body, they then turn information technology over to the Section of Transitional Assistance.

According to data the I-Squad obtained from the Department of Public Safety, the Office of the Medical Examiner referred 78 unclaimed bodies to the DTA in 2017, 72 in 2016, 79 in 2015, and 85 in 2014.

Stefan said that DTA reimburses funeral directors $1,100 for indigent burials, but in order to qualify for the reimbursement, they tin can't spend more than $3,500, which barely covers the toll of a bones burial. A family's assets are also counted against that cap. "When it comes to a death, it becomes a money issue, and the funeral directors are slowly but surely bankroll off, not going to do them, at present what are you doing to do?"

Senate President Harriette Chandler is familiar with the issue, and has been working to make changes for years. "Our concern is the fact that it costs approximately upward to $three,000 to coffin a body, and if yous're indigent, nobody is going to pay for that $3,000, however, if you're indigent, you would be able to be cremated for $500."

Cremation is a much cheaper selection, just under state law, information technology requires a signature from next of kin. If a funeral managing director picks upwards an unclaimed trunk and tin't observe the next of kin, they tin can either pay for the burial with the money provided by the land, and absorb the rest of the cost, or store the body in a refrigerated space, in hopes that a family member volition eventually plough up.

Senate President Chandler proposed a budget amendment last year to increase reimbursements for indigent burials, and allow funeral directors to cremate unclaimed bodies under certain circumstances. The measure was vetoed by Governor Baker.

Senate President Chandler told the I-Team, the issue needs to be addressed. "We can't only turn our head and be in deprival, stick our heads in the sand and say, this isn't my problem, information technology'southward all of our trouble."

Governor Baker sent the I-Team the following statement virtually vetoing the mensurate.

"The Baker-Polito Administration was pleased to propose a balanced budget, including a new policy at the Office of the Primary Medical Examiner that reduced the number of unclaimed bodies awaiting burying by increasing bounty to funeral homes."

Department of Public Safety spokesperson Felix Browne told the I-Squad, the Department of Transitional Assist started an incentive program in January of 2016. Under the program, funeral directors are given an additional $i,000 on top of the $one,100 that DTA provides to remove unclaimed bodies from the Medical Examiner'southward Function.

Browne said prior the program, bodies were left at the Function of the Medical Examiner morgue for an average of 43.nine days. After the program started, the boilerplate length of time from request to removal from the morgue decreased to eight.eight days.

Still, Stefan told the I-Team the average burying costs at least $3,000, so while the additional $one,000 may help, it withal may not be enough to entice other funeral directors to selection up unclaimed bodies.

Unclaimed bodies referred to DTA:

2014 – 85
2015 – 79
2016 – 72
2017 – 78

(These are the numbers of unclaimed bodies that the Medical Examiner'south Office referred to the Department of Transitional Assistance. The numbers do not reflect the combined indigent burials that accept gone through DTA.)

Per Felix Browne, Department of Public Rubber

Total Indigent Burials in Massachusetts

2014= 3,519
2015= 3,923
2016= 5,218
2017= 4,553 (Every bit of 12/eighteen/17)

-Per Elissa Snook, Department of Public Health

Length of fourth dimension indigent bodies remained in morgues:

Jan. 2016 – 22 bodies, average stay 37 days
Feb. 2016 – 2 bodies, average stay 61 days
March 2016 – vi bodies, average stay 18 days
Apr 2016 -3 bodies, average stay nineteen days
May 2016 – five bodies, average stay 25 days
June 2016 – iv bodies, boilerplate stay 10 days
July 2016 – half dozen bodies, average stay 14 days
August 2016 – 8 bodies, average stay 10 days
September 2016 – 9 bodies, average stay 3 days
October 2016 – 10 bodies, boilerplate stay three days
November 2016 – 9 bodies, boilerplate stay 8 days
__________________________________________
January 2017 – 5 bodies, average stay 3 days
February 2017 – 10 bodies, average stay 7 days
March 2017 – 6 bodies, average stay 6 days
Apr 2017 – 4 bodies, boilerplate stay iv days
May 2017 – 12 bodies, average stay 6 days
June 2017 -9 bodies, average stay half dozen days
July 2017 -v bodies, boilerplate stay 5 days
August 2017 -8 bodies, average stay 8 days
Sept. 2017 -vii bodies, boilerplate stay 4 days
Oct. 2017 -9 bodies, average stay 9 days