County may pay more to bury the poor

County commissioners will be asked to increase the amount paid to funeral homes for indigent funerals.

By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 27, 2000

HOMOSASSA -- Elsie Hurtt's funeral was small, just a handful of strangers who donated what they could to give the nursing home patient a decent burial.

There was no one left behind when Hurtt died last month, no relatives to attend her funeral or even make sure she had one. The only survivor was a grandson somewhere out West, but no one could reach him.

Debby S. Savage, the licensed funeral director with Fero Funeral Home, did Hurtt's hair and makeup, and donated a casket and burial clothes. Dick Wilder of Wilder-Fountains Funeral Home arranged to have Hurtt buried at the Stage Stand Cemetery in Homosassa.

"My heart really went out to her, even though I didn't know her," Savage said. "I wanted her to have a dignified and respectable burial."

Wilder said he sees four or five funerals like Hurtt's every year, burials for people who can't afford a funeral because there are no relatives left to pick up the bill, or the survivors simply can't afford it.

State law requires counties to pay for burials for the poor, and each year Citrus County sets aside $2,000 for those expenses.

For as long as anyone can remember, the county has reimbursed funeral homes a modest $200 per burial, relying on the generosity of funeral directors to pay most of the expenses out of pocket.

Sometimes county jail inmates volunteer to dig the grave site for indigent burials, but there were no volunteers for Hurtt's funeral. The $200 stipend from the county went to paying a private vaulting service to dig and cover her grave site.

County officials are considering increasing the reimbursement from $200 to $500, which would help cover more of the costs that funeral homes end up shouldering, such as the cost of providing a casket and transporting the body.

Community Services director Heidi Denis is asking commissioners to increase the fund to $3,000, enough to pay for six indigent funerals each year.

The county commissioners will discuss the proposed increase at their Aug. 2 budget workshop.

"They're providing a wonderful service to the county, and for them to recover as much of their input is a good thing," Denis said.

The proposed increase was welcome news to funeral home directors.

"That would be a tremendous help," Wilder said, noting that often the funeral homes spend $700 to $800 beyond what the county pays. "That would really cover the actual cash we're paying out."

Denis said her office is frugal with the fund. The county pays only after Denis' staff reviews the case and determines that there is no relative available or willing to pay the funeral costs.

The county has paid for only three funerals this year, but Denis expects that number to go up in the coming years as Citrus County's population continues to age.

"I think that as with almost every service, our population is aging and we're having more and more of a demand for services for our older population," Denis said. "This is one aspect of that."

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