At its March meetings, the State Board again received from the Division staff a rule proposal that would define the minimum records that a preneed seller would have to maintain. The first recordkeeping proposal was offered last July, but was never discussed. The recordkeeping proposal was subsequently included on the December agenda, but was only
Compliance
A Missouri Mid-Semester Cram: the March agenda
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Compliance, Recordkeeping
The staff for the Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors posted the 779 page agenda for next week’s meetings. Doesn’t the state have a policy against the waste of natural resources? Granted the agenda includes minutes and regulation proposals from several prior meetings, but a Cliff’s Notes would be helpful to know what’s…
Missouri Preneed Seller Records: Trying to Get Everyone on a Similar Page
By Bill Stalter on
As reported in several prior posts, the preneed examination process in Missouri has been a work in progress for the past five years. Funeral homes in that state have been selling preneed for more than 30 years without much oversight or recordkeeping guidelines. When the law was re-written in 2009 in response to the NPS…
Curtailing the Powers of the Industry Board: A Long Time Coming?
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Compliance
As acknowledged by an opinion issued by the California Attorney General’s office, the Supreme Court’s decision in North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. Federal Trade Commission caught state governments by surprise. Most states have allowed their licensing boards to operate under the assumption that industry members were protected from antitrust suits under…
Triggering the Active Supervision Requirement: Harm to a Business Model
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Compliance
The Supreme Court’s recent decision in North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners v. Federal Trade Commission left states with a number of unanswered questions, including when a proposed regulation or discipline action would trigger a restraint of trade claim. In December 2015, the US District Court in Texas addressed that issue in Teladoc, Inc. v.
Missouri Funeral Trust: Time to Put Up or Shut Up?
By Bill Stalter on
The Missouri Funeral Trust now faces the predicament we predicted a few months ago (The MFT’s Catch 22). The Court recently granted the State’s motion to dismiss, and dropped the State Board from the lawsuit. The main motivation for the lawsuit was probably to gain leverage in bringing a long and frustrating…
Missouri’s Second Round of Exams: The Committee’s Role
By Bill Stalter on
In September we posted about a regulation proposal that sought to define the role of a sub-committee of the Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors (Missouri’s Financial Examination Committee: What Role?). While the Board eventually gave its staff instructions to revise that proposal, the regulation has yet to resurface. Instead, the…
Missouri’s Second Round of Exams: Exit Interviews
By Bill Stalter on
In a prior post we alluded to Missouri preneed sellers’ complaints about the examination process, and that the follow up process to the on-site review has been unnecessarily burdensome. Subsequent to the examiner’s departure from the funeral home, the seller received an exception list of missing contracts or documents, which the seller can often quickly…
Missouri Second Round of Exams: 100% Reviews
By Bill Stalter on
The Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors and the Board’s staff are engaged in an awkward exercise of establishing audit policies for the state’s preneed industry. The staff, employees of the Division of Professional Registration, must take the lead in making recommendations to the Board. The Board then must approve the recommendations, or…
Missouri Preneed Examinations: Round 2
By Bill Stalter on
When the Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors meet on January 6th, the main topic of discussion will be the scope of the next round of preneed financial examinations. With the passage of Senate Bill No. 1 in 2009, the State Board was given the responsibility of conducting a preneed examination…