ensure-deathcare-compliance-and-pricing

name

ensure-deathcare-compliance-and-pricing

description

Audit a funeral home's pricing and disclosures against the FTC Funeral Rule and clear the cremation-authorization and vital-records gates. Check the General Price List, Casket Price List, and Outer Burial Container list for required disclosures and itemization (no forced packages, embalming-not-required, telephone-price disclosure, no misrepresentation); confirm the cremation authorizing agent, positive ID, written authorization, and unbroken chain-of-custody before any irreversible step; and sequence the death certificate, certification, and disposition permits. Reach for this when the user asks "is our GPL compliant?", "what authorizes a cremation?", or "what vital records/permits do we need?". Used by `funeral-arrangement-and-compliance-specialist` (primary). Not legal advice — verify the current Rule + state law with counsel.

Skill: ensure-deathcare-compliance-and-pricing

Invoked by: funeral-arrangement-and-compliance-specialist (primary). Also consulted by funeral-operations-lead to confirm an operational change (a new package, a pre-need push) doesn't collide with the Funeral Rule.

When to invoke: "Is our General Price List Funeral-Rule compliant?"; "which disclosures do we owe and when?"; "what authorizes a cremation and keeps custody airtight?"; "what vital records and permits do we need, in what order?"; any audit of pricing, disclosures, authorization, or vital records.

Output: a Funeral-Rule pricing/disclosure audit (each gap named + a fix), the cremation authorization + positive-ID + chain-of-custody clearance, and the vital-records/permit sequence — with every volatile jurisdiction-specific and Funeral-Rule item carrying a retrieval date, a re-verify step, and a "not legal advice — confirm with counsel + the licensing board" marker.

Procedure

1. Traverse the compliance decision tree first. Use ../../knowledge/deathcare-compliance-decision-tree.md: at-need vs pre-need → disposition → which price lists and disclosures fire → authorization & permits. Don't pattern-match a requirement to the request.
2. Audit the price lists against the Funeral Rule structure. Walk ../../templates/general-price-list-checklist.md: the General Price List (itemized individual goods & services + required disclosures), the Casket Price List, and the Outer Burial Container list. Check itemization, the required disclosure lines, and that no item the law lets a family decline is bundled as a condition of another.
3. Confirm the disclosure moments. GPL given to anyone asking in person about arrangements/prices; CPL and OBC list before showing those items; the telephone price disclosure on a price call; the embalming-not-required disclosure and the no-misrepresentation rule throughout. Name any missing or mistimed disclosure as a gap with a fix.
4. Clear the cremation authorization gate before any irreversible step. For cremation (and alkaline hydrolysis), confirm all of: the correct authorizing agent (statutory priority — state-specific, verify), positive identification, written authorization, an unbroken chain-of-custody / tracking, and no commingling. If any element is missing → STOP; an irreversible step never proceeds on an incomplete authorization.
5. Sequence the vital records and permits. Death-certificate data + physician/ME certification → filing with the registrar within the deadline → the burial/cremation/transit permit → certified copies for the family. Note that deadlines, forms, and the certifier of record are jurisdiction-specific.
6. Document the compliance record. The itemized statement of goods & services, the disclosures given and when, and the signed authorizations — the record is both the compliance proof and the family's clarity.
7. Mark every volatile item. Flag each Funeral-Rule-revision, state-licensing, and permit-deadline item with a retrieval date, a re-verify instruction, and the "not legal advice — confirm with counsel + the licensing board" marker.

Worked example

User: "Review our General Price List — is it Funeral-Rule compliant? We also do cremations."

• Tree: at-need → both burial and cremation paths → GPL + CPL + OBC list in scope; cremation adds the authorization gate.
• GPL audit: itemization present, but the embalming-not-required disclosure is missing and "basic services of funeral director and staff" is bundled into two packages without the individual-selection option — both are gaps. Fix: add the required disclosure lines; unbundle so a family can decline any item the law allows.
• CPL/OBC: CPL present; the OBC list implies a container is required for cremation — a misrepresentation gap. Fix: state that cremation generally needs no outer burial container.
• Cremation gate: confirm the authorizing agent (verify your state's priority order), positive ID, written authorization, chain-of-custody, and no commingling before any cremation proceeds.
• Vital records: death-cert filing + certification → cremation permit → certified copies; note the state filing deadline.
• Marking: every Rule-specific and state-specific line flagged — retrieved 2026-07-09, re-verify against the current FTC Funeral Rule + state law with counsel; not legal advice.

Guardrails

• Traverse the compliance tree before auditing — structure before line-item.
• Itemization + no forced packages + embalming-not-required + no misrepresentation are the non-negotiable Rule checks; name each gap with a fix.
• The cremation authorization + positive-ID + chain-of-custody gate must clear before the irreversible step — any missing element is a hard STOP.
• Match the requirement set to the disposition; cremation needs no outer burial container — don't imply otherwise.
• Vital-records deadlines, permit forms, and authorizing-agent priority are jurisdiction-specific and volatile — carry a retrieval date and re-verify.
• Not legal advice. Every Funeral-Rule-revision and state-law item is confirmed with counsel + the licensing board before reliance. See ../../knowledge/deathcare-compliance-decision-tree.md.