When is a body considered 'unclaimed'? Why RI's Health Department wants to set a limit.

The state Department of Health is proposing changes to the process for handling unclaimed bodies, but one critic worries the changes will place an additional burden on the state's under-resourced program for publicly funded burials.

House Bill 7517 "is about putting clear timelines into statute when it comes to unclaimed decedents," said Health Department spokesman Joseph Wendelken. "Currently, nothing in statute defines how much time needs to pass before a body is considered 'unclaimed.'"

What would the proposal do?

Under the proposed law, a body would be considered "unclaimed" if relatives, "domestic partners" or others authorized by law to make funeral arrangements either fail to claim a body within 10 days or fail to make arrangements with a funeral home within 21 days.

"In some instances, a decedent’s family will either refuse to claim the person’s body or will claim the body but not contract with a funeral home for a funeral or cremation," Wendelken wrote in an email. "This can result in decedents being stored in the Medical Examiner’s Office for months."

That leads to capacity issues and additional storage costs for the Medical Examiner's Office, according to Wendelken.

One decedent has been at the Medical Examiner's Office for more than a year. That individual's spouse claimed the body but has not yet made arrangements for burial or cremation, Wendelken said.

"Other family members could claim this decedent, but that first requires the spouse to relinquish their claim to the body, which has not happened," he explained.

Concerns about impact on 'hugely underfunded' program

On X, formerly known as Twitter, state Sen. Samuel Bell, a Democrat from Providence, expressed concern that the change would hurt low-income families.

Bell said that he could understand wanting to bury a body after three weeks if a family has claimed the decedent but not made funeral arrangements yet.

"But they also propose to pay for it by taking even more money from the already hugely underfunded [General Public Assistance] Burial Assistance program, which pays for burial costs for very poor families who can't afford it," he wrote. "The program has been so underfunded that it's breaking down."

Bell pointed to the most recent budget request that the state Department of Human Services, which is responsible for the GPA Burial Assistance program, made to Gov. Dan McKee. The agency had been seeking an additional $450,000 in annual funding, which did not make it into McKee's budget proposal.

Health Department says unclaimed bodies are likely to require publicly funded burials anyway

"The Catholic Cemeteries, which account for 98% of DHS burials and cremation, have indicated they will need to cap the number of burials they can provide if there is not an increase in DHS’ basic allowance payments for burial crematory expenses," DHS wrote in its request, adding that there are now fewer than 10 funeral homes that regularly perform state-funded burials.

"If there is no increase in DHS’ basic allowance for funeral payments, the state could likely see even less funeral homes providing these needed services," the agency wrote.

Currently, the state pays up to $900 for funerals, which has not kept pace with inflation, DHS noted. By contrast, Massachusetts pays up to $1,100 and Connecticut pays up to $1,350.

"If they take even more money from this fund, it will make things so much worse," Bell wrote. "Being unable to afford to even bury a loved one is so horrible. And so is ruining your finances to do it. Death is awful enough as is."

Asked for comment, Wendelken indicated that bodies that go unclaimed for a long period are likely to be buried through the GPA program regardless.

"If no next of kin can be located, or if a next of kin refuses to claim a body, that case becomes a GPA case anyway," he wrote. "This bill simply clarifies when that process gets initiated."

The Journal has highlighted issues with the state's handling of unclaimed bodies

In recent months, it's become clear there are issues with the way the state handles unclaimed bodies.

In October, The Providence Journal reported that a man trying to arrange a funeral for an old friend with no next of kin couldn't get a call back from DHS.

And last month, Veterans Voice columnist Frank Lennon reported that a "perfect storm" of errors led to a veteran being buried in an unnamed grave rather than in the Rhode Island Veterans Memorial Cemetery.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Bill would change when a body in RI is considered unclaimed