When Colorado state Sen. Dylan Roberts first heard details about the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, he expressed profound disappointment.
“I can’t believe Colorado is going through this again,” the Avon Democrat said. “Why is this continuing to happen in our state? It doesn’t seem to happen in most other states.”
The situation was gruesome: Authorities found at least 189 improperly stored bodies in the funeral home specializing in green burial, an operation its owners had been running without a license. State regulators seemed to have no idea.
The grisly news from the southern Colorado mortuary shined a spotlight on the state’s lax oversight of funeral homes and crematories. Colorado remains the only state in the country that doesn’t license funeral directors or require some certification. State officials don’t regularly inspect funeral homes and only devote one-quarter of one full-time position to regulate 220 funeral homes and 77 crematories.
After a five-year stretch that also included federal charges for two Western Slope funeral home operators and jail time for a high country coroner, Roberts said it’s long past time to close loopholes in Colorado’s regulatory framework.
The Colorado Funeral Directors Association agrees.
“If you’re running an upstanding funeral home, there should be no worries whatsoever,” said Joe Walsh, the association’s president.
“Demand that the issue be revisited”
Last week, the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies — which regulates the state’s funeral homes — published a 57-page sunset review of the state’s mortuary science code.
Sunset reviews evaluate the need for the continued existence of a program or agency. When laws are set to “sunset,” or expire, agencies perform an assessment of the effectiveness of the program and recommend changes to the legislature. Colorado’s funeral home regulations are set to expire in July, unless acted upon by lawmakers.
In its review, the state agency noted that “recent events clearly indicate that additional governmental oversight is warranted to ensure the public trust in the funeral industry.”
State regulators recommended several changes to lawmakers regarding Colorado’s oversight structure. The biggest: requiring the Department of Regulatory Agencies to conduct inspections of funeral homes and crematories on a “routine periodic basis” as well as when a facility closes operations.
Until last year, if state officials wanted to inspect a funeral home or crematory, the business had to grant permission.
In light of the Shannon Kent scandal — in which authorities found an unrefrigerated body, bags of unlabeled cremated remains and an abandoned stillborn infant at his high country funeral homes — Roberts ran a bill last year that allowed unannounced inspections of these facilities.
But in practice, the department only inspects funeral homes and crematories following complaints. Routine inspections do not occur, a practice commonplace in other states.
As of August, state regulators have conducted nine inspections under this new authority, the agency’s review states. Six resulted in letters of admonition, two led to registration relinquishments and one funeral home was placed on probation.
While it’s too early to say whether the 2022 bill has been effective, the report’s authors noted Colorado’s recent troubling history with funeral homes and crematories.
In 2018, the FBI raided the Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors in Montrose. A subsequent investigation found the owners, Shirley Koch and Megan Hess, had been illegally selling body parts without families’ permission. A judge in January sentenced the pair to 15 and 20 years, respectively, in federal prison.
These events, in addition to the Lake County and Penrose investigations, “demand that the issue be revisited,” the review states.
“It is impossible to say whether the events that occurred on the Western Slope and in Lake County, or even more recent events, would have been discovered sooner had routine inspections been a component of the regulation of funeral homes and crematories,” the report’s authors wrote, “but it is at least reasonable to question.”
Routine periodic inspections, regulators said, could motivate funeral home owners to comply with the law, reducing or preventing the likelihood of such events.
The Return to Nature case also spotlighted another weak link in state law.
That facility had let its registration expire last year, but the current statute does not allow inspectors to enter an unlicensed facility — even if they receive a complaint.
The sunset review recommends extending the state’s authority to allow regulators to inspect these facilities for an undetermined amount of time after a license is relinquished or revoked.
Roberts, the state lawmaker, said he’ll probably draft legislation to mandate these routine inspections in an upcoming bill this session. Walsh, the funeral home association’s president, said he’s also enthusiastic about the proposal, though he’s pushing for inspectors to be knowledgeable about the industry.
One problem: The Department of Regulatory Agencies doesn’t have staff or funding to conduct regular inspections statewide.
The department only devotes $74,222 annually to regulatory functions of funeral homes and crematories. It’s staffed with less than one full-time employee.
“Clearly it’s not enough,” Roberts said, adding that he would support finding money in the budget for increased funds. “This is a public safety issue.”
A Department of Regulatory Agencies spokesperson, Katie O’Donnell, said the agency is waiting to see what the bill will include, noting increased regulation typically comes with more money.
“Right now we’re doing OK with what we have,” she said.
Licensing people, not just businesses
In addition to periodic inspections, state lawmakers are considering whether to license funeral home directors, a practice performed by every other state besides Colorado. Currently, the state only licenses funeral home businesses, not people.
The issue isn’t new.
More than 100 years ago, concerns about the danger to public health led to the formation of the Colorado State Board of Embalming Examiners, the sunset review states.
For years, Colorado licensed funeral home directors. But in 1977, a state review recommended the elimination of the board overseeing the industry professionals.
In 1990, 2002 and 2007, state regulators recommended against the regulation of individuals.
But the tides are shifting.
In June, the Colorado Office of Policy, Research & Regulatory Reform received an application seeking the regulation of funeral service professionals, including mortuary science practitioners, funeral directors, cremationists, embalmers and natural reductionists.
That report will be presented to the state legislature by the end of December.
Colorado, under current law, only regulates funerary businesses, not their operators. It means the owners of Return to Nature could open another funeral home tomorrow if they wished.
Those who run funeral homes don’t need to earn a high school degree, pass an exam or serve as an apprentice.
“Colorado definitely has some of the least strict laws in the country,” said Chris Farmer, general counsel for the National Funeral Directors Association.
His organization has spoken to Colorado regulators, recommending basic educational requirements and licensure for funeral directors, along with background checks.
“Funeral service isn’t one where you can kick the door open and let it be a free-for-all,” Farmer said.
The Colorado Funeral Directors Association helps funeral home workers self-certify with mortuary science and certified embalming technician certificates, but none of it is required by law.
“The vast majority of funeral directors in the state have not done them,” Walsh said. “People don’t wanna join us because we have no legal standing.”
Walsh said his members support more robust licensure.
Lawmakers are still considering which funeral home employees would need to be licensed under the proposed bill, Roberts said. Requirements could include certificate and apprenticeship programs but not higher-level bachelor’s or master’s degrees.
After this year’s legislative session, the state senator already had started working on language. Then Penrose happened, adding new urgency to the bill.
“This isn’t about over-regulating businesses,” Roberts said. “This is about those business owners doing the right thing to make sure the public is protected. No matter where you bring your loved one, we want to make sure they’re regulated properly.”
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