Title 7 . Health and Social Services

Chapter 47 . Hearings

Section 130. Funeral and burial expenses

7 AAC 47.130. Funeral and burial expenses

(a) The department will pay general relief assistance to a vendor for basic funeral and burial services provided in the state at the rates published in that vendor's general price list, up to a maximum payment of $1250 to each vendor for each deceased person. Basic funeral and burial services include

(1) preparation and embalming;

(2) provision of a cloth-covered casket with at least four handles and a padded and lined interior, which is similar to Sound Casket Company No. 199 gray domet or Puget Sound Casket Co. No. 0 gray flannel square;

(3) one chapel service at the vendor's place of business;

(4) use of a hearse; and

(5) use of other facilities and equipment necessary for burial or cremation if the next-of-kin requests cremation.

(b) In addition to the payment for basic funeral and burial services identified in (a) of this section, the department will pay general relief assistance for additional necessary services or expenses provided in the state, including

(1) the cost of the least expensive municipal or private cemetery plot that is reasonably available in the locality where the deceased is to be buried;

(2) the reasonable cost of cremation if the next-of-kin requests cremation;

(3) the reasonable cost of opening and closing the grave;

(4) the cost of a hermetic sealer, oversized casket, clothing, extraordinarily lengthy storage, and other extraordinary expenses necessary because of special circumstances, if the division authorizes the service before the service is rendered;

(5) the reasonable cost of transporting the deceased from the place of death to a place of burial in a different locality if transportation of the deceased is requested by the next-of-kin and

(A) it is less costly to transport the deceased than to provide for burial at the place of death; or

(B) before death, the deceased was transported from the deceased's last place of residence to the place of death at the expense of the department; and

(6) a processing charge equal to 10 percent of the amount of a payment a vendor makes directly to a cemetery or a provider of transportation for any reimbursable service listed in (1) - (5) of this subsection.

(c) The department will make only one assistance payment for services under (a) and (b) of this section. That assistance payment will be made to

(1) the vendor that prepares the deceased person for burial or cremation; or

(2) each vendor, if the services of one vendor are necessary at the place of death and the services of another vendor are necessary at the place of burial, except that the department will only pay one vendor for a chapel service.

(d) The department will, in its discretion, pay general relief assistance for the reasonable cost of necessary funeral and burial services provided outside the state for a person who was transported outside the state at the expense of the department for medical treatment and died while outside the state for treatment. If the next-of-kin requests that the deceased be returned to the state for burial, the department will pay the reasonable costs of transporting the deceased from the place of death to the place of burial.

(e) The vendor shall immediately refund to the department a payment received from a resource defined in 7 AAC 47.160(b) for an expense paid under this section.

(f) At least once every three years, the department will review the maximum payment level in (a) of this section for basic funeral and burial services.

(g) In this section"vendor" means an individual or business that provides funeral and burial services.

History: Eff. 3/23/78, Register 65; am 11/8/80, Register 76; am 1/30/92, Register 121; am 6/2/93, Register 126

Authority: AS 47.05.010

AS 47.25.120

AS 47.25.300