No. CS/CS/SB 598
Filed under Occupational.
Funeral, Cemetery, and Consumer Services; Prohibiting a licensee of funeral or cemetery services from entering into certain contracts, agreements, or arrangements; revising the requirements for an applicant seeking licensure by endorsement to be an embalmer; deleting an exception to the educational requirements for an applicant seeking licensure to be a funeral director; authorizing a licensee or a licensed facility to dispose of human remains in a specified manner if the legally authorized person of the decedent fails, neglects, or refuses to direct the disposition, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDFuneral homes and other licensed facilities gain new authority to dispose of remains after 90 days when the decedent's legally authorized person will not direct what happens to them. The wait to dispose of unclaimed cremated remains drops from 120 days to 90.
A licensee can no longer agree to become the exclusive funeral, cremation, or removal provider for a hospice or other end-of-life care organization, whether under a formal contract or informal arrangement.
Embalmers, funeral directors, and combination applicants who qualify by endorsement need only pass Florida's law exam, not extra coursework. Combination interns gain a new path: any associate degree, without the previously required mortuary-law and ethics courses.
Cemeteries can now count land split by a public road toward the 30-acre minimum if the parcels sit close together. Preneed cancellation notices can go by email, and prepaid funeral insurance no longer needs the insured's written consent.
AIA funeral, cremation, refrigeration, or removal licensee may no longer agree to be the sole or exclusive provider for any hospice or other organization providing medical, palliative, or end-of-life care to the public, whether through a formal contract or a looser arrangement.
AIIf a licensee or licensed facility has lawfully held human remains for 90 days or more and the legally authorized person fails, neglects, or refuses to direct their disposition, the licensee may now dispose of the remains without further direction.
AICremated remains left unclaimed can now be disposed of after 90 days from cremation, down from the 120-day wait the law previously required, for the funeral or direct disposal establishment holding them.
AIThe statute no longer spells out how a trustee must search for and re-mail a bounced preneed cancellation notice to any address it finds; that is left to rules the board may, but is not required to, adopt. The initial notice may also go to an e-mail address.
AIA cemetery's required 30 contiguous acres can now include parcels divided only by a public right-of-way or road, as long as they sit in close proximity and form one unified cemetery property.
AIAn applicant for a funeral director internship under this route no longer has to have passed college courses in mortuary law or funeral service law and in ethics to qualify.
AIAn applicant can now qualify for a combination funeral director and embalmer internship with any associate degree or higher, instead of only through enrollment plus 75% course completion and passing mortuary-law and ethics courses, both of which are dropped.
AIA prepaid funeral contract policy joins group life and group accident, health, or disability policies as exempt from the rule requiring the insured person to apply for or consent in writing before a life insurance contract on them takes effect.