Travis County Commissioners Court
January 31, 2006
Item 1
1. Receive comments regarding recommendations for Travis County indigent burial services program.
>> move to open the public hearing.
>> second.
>> all in favor? Passes unanimously. Good morning.
>> good morning, judge and Commissioner, sherri flemming, executive manager for Travis County health and human services and veterans service. As you are aware of, over the last six months or so, staff have been working on revisions to chapter 73, which is the indian burial assistance policy. The Travis County Commissioners court has responsibility under the Texas health and safety code to provide burial for indigents. We have made revisions to this policy. The last revisions were approximately 10 years ago. So it was our hope to -- to streamline the policy. Incorporate some things that -- that have come into play over the last 10 years, but then also make it a document that was easier for staff to implement the policy. The major changes include a -- a better definition of viewing, in terms of what we mean by -- by allowing an opportunity for family to view the policy. There are view -- the body, excuse me, there's also a new provision on department discretion, which gives me some latitude to make certain modifications with notice to the court. Based on circumstances that may not be covered by the policy. We have also made more specific the residency requirement indicating both that a person could potentially be eligible to receive these services if they are -- if they are a Travis County resident at the time of death or if they die at Travis County. We also added a provision that would allow us to consider as a resident a person who has left our county to be a resident of a nursing home. And that their residency at that nursing home is -- was less than 90 days prior to the time of their death and that their residency at that nursing home was driven slowly by insurance or some financial requirement. So we have added that provision to our policy as well. We have also formalized somewhat of an informal system and that is our funeral home rotation list, which comes into play when there is a decedent who does not have a next of kin to choose a funeral home on their behalf. Those are the major policy changes. I believe some of the others would be characterized as tweaks to the policy. Language corrections and those sort of things. So -- that's -- that's basically it.
>> for the average resident who may be in need of these services, you choose the funeral home from the list and if you don't choose one, you come -- you come to health and human services and basically we go through the list and then rotating order we pull the next funeral home up.
>> yes, sir. But generally, the funeral home has been selected by the time we are -- we come into the picture.
>> okay. Now there is one little part that I noticed yesterday and had not previously, it basically left to the discretion of the funeral home the determination of whether a -- whether a body was oversized, regular or not.
>> that is correct.
>> I was left with the impression three -- why any one of three other options wouldn't be better. One is where there is a definition somewhere that the funeral directors would agree to. Two is whether the state regulates that, why we wouldn't simply pick up their regulation. And the third would be chat chatting with our partners, maybe getting an average of what they say. I’m left with the impression that the language leaves total subjectivity. One funeral home can say if you weigh 150 pounds you are oversized, the other one may say if you weigh 300 pounds. The difference is $150 compensation for the oversize, over egg. Egg -- over regular. My recommendation would be to try to at least put in policy some definition of oversize so the 10 will do roughly the same. But if it's more difficult than I think, then I can live with the language it's just that it really is very subjective.
>> okay. My guess is whatever the practice is, there's a practice in place. Based on what they have told us, I would dare say they probably are pretty close anyway.
>> I believe so, judge. I can say that this is an area where we are having difficulty. I believe that -- that our partners do have a standard and they certainly can determine what that standard might be. My guess would be that it's relative to the type of casket or container that you use, but I see legal wanting to comment.
>> [inaudible - no mic] generally it's basically guided by the casket. We very rarely have a -- oversized requests. It generally is somebody that can't fit into the standard sized casket that each funeral home, they have their own vendors that they purchase those caskets from.
>> there you go right there. An oversize cadaver is one that cannot fit into the regular sized casket. That's better than left to the discretion of the funeral director. See what I’m saying.
>> yes. Yes, sir. I believe we can make that change.
>> excellent recommendation. Would anyone like to give testimony during this public hearing? If so, please come forward. Seeing none.
>> move to close the public hearing.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you all very much. This is action item no. 26 today, which we will discuss if we need to and take action next week. Next week the recommendation will be to make it -- to include it in the consent motion. So if you -- if you have comments between now and then, get with ms. Flemming or a member of the court and next week we hope to have it on the rocket agenda.
>> in light of that comment, judge, I would ask that -- that at the time of the court's approval that we will make the policy effective March 1st, legal has advised us that there are certain documents that will come into play once the policy is approved, they need a little more time to get those to us.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, January 31, 2006 3:38 PM