Latest / On Deathcare / New Funeral Home Healthcare Benefits, Indiana Board Hits Back, and More

Transcript

New Funeral Home Healthcare Benefits, Indiana Board Hits Back, and More · On Deathcare

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Hi,
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: I am Tony Russo from On Death Care and this is The Rest,
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: your weekly rundown of news from around funeral service.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Been a busy, busy,
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: busy week and I'm not going to get to everything but I'll get to everything
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: that I can.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: Before I get to everything that I can though I do want to take a moment
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: to thank my paid subscribers.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: They support this show and make it possible.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: And it has been an absolute blast to do.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: I cannot wait to do more of it.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: If you'd like to become a subscriber,
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: paid or not, you can go to ondeathcare.com and hit the subscribe button.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I will send you practically everything I make if you subscribe at the zero dollar price.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: If you subscribe at the more than $0 level,
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: I also have a weekly column that I send along and I'm getting ready
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: to add some more bonuses to the paywall soon.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: But anyway, thank you for listening.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for taking the time and let's get into it.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: One story that I put aside because I wasn't going to report
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: on it is vaguely relevant, so I want to mention it.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Tanya Covington-Radick is an author in Cross Plains,
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Tennessee,
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: which is in Robertson County,
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: and she has just written a book about Bobby Lewis Wilkes,
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: who was convicted and sentenced to prison for burial fraud back in 1988.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: And her book explores trust and the betrayal thereof and all of the different ways
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: that this person was able to kind of navigate their community while also kind
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: of cheating them.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: The reason I set it aside is because I had a bunch to talk about,
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: but the reason I'm pulling it back out is because the first story is
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: about Mundy Funeral Home in Jamestown,
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: Tennessee,
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: and the co-owner Chadrick Mundy,
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: who has been accused of widespread pre-need insurance fraud.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: Now, it says here that regulators discovered a pattern during their July audit,
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: which uncovered missing files,
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: unaccounted insurance payouts,
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: and roughly $70,000 in fraudulent claims across a dozen policies.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: That is probably as true as we're going to be able to get for now.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: But I've been poking into this because they name-checked Homesteaders Life recently.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so I reached out to them and I said, you know, how does this kind of thing happen?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: I did not know that not all states,
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: actually no states as far as I can tell,
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: require a death certificate to pay out pre-need insurance.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll be doing a story about that.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's an interesting history.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: The short version is if they waited for the death certificate,
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: then they may as well just have life insurance.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: The point of pre-need insurance is making sure that
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: the funeral directors get paid automatically.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: In a timely manner.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a newish process, according to some of the people that I've spoken with.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: But I also got a note from one of my readers that said, you know, it is all about cash flow.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: And that really makes sense.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: The reason that this fraud can occur is because a funeral director has...
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: Convince themselves that they can catch up.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: If they just get two more steps ahead, they can catch up.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: This guy,
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think everyone was lucky that they caught him at $70,000 because as we've seen
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: in other cases, that number can be a lot higher.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: What's interesting about homesteaders being name-checked as one of
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: the Insurance policies is that further down in the story,
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: it says that one of the things that triggered the audit is the fact
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: that someone called one of the insurance companies.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: I do not know if it's homesteaders.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: And they gave me a great reply that's going to be in the story,
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: and I'm going to save it for that.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: But they said that they didn't want to talk about an open criminal case or
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: an open case, and I do not blame them.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: But someone tried to move their insurance policy.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: And when they tried to move their insurance policy,
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: the insurance company said, that's interesting.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: We thought you were already dead and literally buried.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of what started all of the bells and whistles ringing.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: And the expert that I spoke with said that that is really the only way to catch money.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: These people, a lot of them, there are two or three ways.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: And again, I'm going to do a longer story.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: It'll be in that.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: But it's interesting because when you think about it on a global scale,
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: like if somebody asked me to pay them $10,000 for a funeral,
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: I would definitely want to know where that money comes from or is going to.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: But you have to remember that with a lot of times these massive companies are getting...
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: So many claims in a day and paying them out immediately that it makes more sense
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: for them in the end to take that little bit of extra risk that someone wasn't dead
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: than it is to slow down the whole process because this way that pre-need works now,
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: this immediate payment,
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: this very quick payment is the difference between keeping a lot
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: of funeral homes open and a lot of funeral homes open.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: So, it'll be interesting to see how things go on down the road.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: I wonder slash worry that there will be some sort of increased legislation
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: or something like that that will make it harder to get these immediate payouts.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: And of course,
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: with any luck,
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: the associations involved will step in and try to prevent that from happening.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: So, anyway...
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's a link to the original story in the show notes.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: In other pre-need funding scam news,
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: the Indiana Funeral and Cemetery Board voted unanimously earlier this month
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: to revoke the license of Gary Greiner,
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: a funeral director in Indiana,
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: and also to revoke the So he can't be a funeral director in Indiana anymore,
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: and he also can't own that particular building.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: Griner's accused of stealing more than half a million dollars from pre-need funds.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Investigation is ongoing and no charges have been filed that I have been able to find.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: But there is an 18 count complaint.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: Now, that is not the interesting part for me.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: For me, the interesting part was a different section of the hearing where one of Mr.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: Griner's friends decided to try and buy a His funeral home,
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: the gentleman's name is Jeff Edmondson,
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: and he eventually admitted under intense questioning that he was leasing
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: the former Griner Funeral Home Facility from Gary Griner.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so he had agreed to pay Mr. Griner $3,500 a month in rent and also to provide his
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: 50% of the net take of that funeral home each month, as long as the agreement was in place.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: The agreement was for one year, but it could be canceled within three months.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: And this made the funeral board really nervous, and it made one really, really angry.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I wish you could hear the tape.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not able to really cut it out of their YouTube page.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm just going to read it to you because it's a fantastic quote
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: from Frank Downing, who is on the Indiana Funeral and
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Cemetery Board.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: I have sat here on this board for 12 years,
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: and every single time we have a situation like this,
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: there's somebody there to cut a deal where the former owner is.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Still, we don't want Griner associated.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: He has given us all a black eye.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: He has hurt every funeral director's reputation in the state of Indiana and in
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: the U.S. by doing this, stealing from little old ladies who trusted him.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: After a little while,
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: he went after Edmondson and gave him a hard time for being involved in this.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: Edmondson and Griner had been friends for a long time.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: It says here, 35 years of professional and personal relationship.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: And it looked to the board like he was trying to keep...
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: This guy afloat who had already stolen half a million dollars or more allegedly from
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: the members of his community and they did not want to be any part of endorsing it.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: So Edmondson won't be able to expand that.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I do not know what's going to happen to that funeral home.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: Edmondson said that it was no longer listed on the sheriff's sale list.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: It would be astounding if,
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: Greiner,
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: didn't have to sell the funeral home and was able to was able to keep
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: the funeral home while the people of Indiana paid for all of the money
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: that went missing from his funeral home.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: Not newly.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: Indiana's had it for a while.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: They have a fraud protection office where they can help families
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: who had their pre-need money stolen, make sure that they can pay for the funerals.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: But anyway, there's a link to my reporting on this in the show notes.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: The Illinois Funeral Directors Association,
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: Board of Directors,
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: sent out a press release,
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: an open letter,
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: addressing some of the troubles that they've been having, specifically in Chicago.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: This particular one was about the National Bohemian Cemetery Museum.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: And we've reported on both of those before.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: What's interesting is,
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: it's funny,
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: it says things very similar to what I was saying,
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: which is before you go in and try to make more regulations to prevent the last crime
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: from being legal,
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: I guess, it might make more sense to take a larger look at the framework.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: And there is a link to the statement there.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: I think that
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think I might be missing something because this Chicago stories seem way overblown.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: As I mentioned last week, there is new regulation that's not even enacted yet.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry,
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: it goes into I want to mention it again because the story among a lot
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: of people is starting to be like, Chicago needs to get its act together.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: I want to say that I feel like their act is coming together.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that this is the result.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know,
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: if you decide that you're going to start enforcing the law,
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: then you're going to start catching more people.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: That seems obvious to me.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so, again, if I'm missing something, please, somebody tell me what it is.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: But I feel like these are examples of what was possible before the new regulations were written.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: And People are just keeping an eye out more.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: You're going to get more employees involved.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know,
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: who are saying,
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: hey, I think something's weird's going on here because it's in the air now.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: I named it the Penrose effect,
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: whatever,
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: three or four years ago when the first body scandal and that huge body scandal broke
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: in Colorado.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: But it is now that it's on people's minds.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: We are seeing so much more reporting on violations.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: The Funeral boards are getting coverage for a change, which never happens.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: So it'll be interesting to see how things go on.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: If the funeral industry can go without a major scandal for a while,
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: maybe it'll become less interesting.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: But I think a lot of these reports and a lot of these calls
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: for change are just people who are just showing up at the party
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: and don't know what's been going on so far.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: But anyway, there's a link to it in the show notes.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: Another statement that I found on Facebook and would like to share with you is
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: from A.S. Turner & Sons Funeral Home and Crematory based in Decatur, Georgia.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: It has acquired Ford Stewart Funeral Home in Jonesboro, also Georgia.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: And that company will now operate as Ford Funeral Home and Cremation Services,
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: a division of A.S. Turner & Sons.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: The transition extends the reaching power of the Decatur firm while preserving
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: the longstanding legacy of the Jonesboro business.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: I got a kick out of this mostly because I really am interested
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: in how many independent funeral homes are now working
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: to buy other independent funeral homes when they're It makes sense
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: and it's possible.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that actually the owner of one of the owners of A.S.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: Turner and Son said,
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: his name is Cy Hume,
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: and he said, we are not corporate and we don't have that mentality.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: We see this merger as a definite win for both firms.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: Together,
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: we can learn from one another and offer even more to the families
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: who placed their trust in us.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so the other kind of piece of news that I wanted to mention is the fact
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: that they added a division of A.S.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: Turner and Sons to the original name is A.,
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: Something I think we would like to see more of,
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: knowing there was a great Facebook post from another funeral director
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: that I'll share in the show notes where he describes how if you're
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: an independent funeral home...
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know,
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: you can't just say you're independent
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: because many corporately owned funeral homes look independent at first glance.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so making a big deal about being independent is an important part of it.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: And this I think is a great example of how
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: to make your funeral home look independent and be independent
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: and still make sure you get the credit for the ownership if the ownership isn't
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: the person with their name on the building.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the other thing is I wonder if A.S.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: Turner and Sons are going to be making more divisions that they can,
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: um, attach to this name.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: So, um, What I wanted to ask the rest of you is make sure you let me know
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: if you have something to share,
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: if you've purchased a business,
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: if you are selling a business, any M&A news I am always happy to have and to share.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: You can send it to me, send all press releases to me at bytonyrusso at gmail.com.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: That is B-Y-T-O-N-Y-R-U-S-S-O at gmail.com.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I will make sure that I address it in one way or another.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: I've never done this before, and I'm a little nervous, but kind of excited.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: This is something I would like to do more.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: So first of all,
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'd like to invite you,
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: if you have a take on a breaking news or general news or even cultural thing,
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: reach out to me.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: Shoot me an email at bytonyrusso at gmail.com.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: I would like to start including...
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: Small editorial voices in this podcast,
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: maybe five minutes less to talk about something that is important.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: I had the privilege of speaking with Brad Cooknicki,
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: who is the executive director of the Independent Funeral Group.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: About their new program.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: Now, a couple months ago,
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: he and I spoke about it and this is keep it under your hat until we can make
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: an announcement.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: They've made an announcement.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: So they're essentially a support and buying group for funeral homes.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's an inexpensive club to join.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's worth it because you get special deals about everything.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: But this week they announced after a year's worth of work that they are able to offer offers.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: Health insurance to funeral directors at no additional cost.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: So they're not taking a taste.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: They're not taking a commission.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: They're not taking anything.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: They worked out a deal that all of their members can handle.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: Today, we made the announcement that we are
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: We unleashed our proprietary PPO healthcare plan, which has been approved in all 50 states.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: It was an enormous project that we've been working on for years.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, nearly 11 months.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know,
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: having to go through all the legal steps and trying
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: to figure out how we could cross state lines.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: We had to go through a census.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: We had to go through bidders.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: And finally,
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: we were able to stick one that was willing to work with us in
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: the independent funeral group to provide that to our membership.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: We have an application process.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's not intensive at all.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: We also have protective territories.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: Part of the deal of us working with the family-owned funeral home is
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: to make sure they also have a competitive advantage.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: So we try to keep it that way.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Our whole goal, our whole mission statement is to keep family-owned, family-owned.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that'll do it for this time.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: The rest is an On Deathcare production.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: It was written, edited, videoed, transmogrified, all the things by me, Tony Russo.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: Happy to do it.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: Having an absolute blast doing this every week.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: I hope you're enjoying it.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you as always for your attention.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: I know that it's valuable and I try to treat it as such.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: Once again, I would like to thank my paid subscribers for their support.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: It is moral support as well as financial support.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: It makes me do this and it makes me feel even better about doing this.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: This is such a fascinating industry.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: There are so many great stories to tell and your help in allowing me
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: to tell them is invaluable to me.
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