As COVID-19 Deaths Mount, State Auditors Ding Board That Oversees Funeral Industry

The state failed to inspect funeral facilities for 14 months. After inspections resumed, COVID shut everything down.

Haystack Rock, as seen from Tierra del Mar on the morning of August 16, 2020. (Alex Wittwer)

The average Oregon funeral costs $5,500, a large investment that comes at a time when families are often vulnerable and struggle to make informed decisions.

That's why the state of Oregon has a Mortuary and Cemetery Board, to oversee an industry that nationally takes in about $14.2 billion a year.

A state audit released Dec. 23 found that oversight of the industry, which includes 794 providers in Oregon, has been decidedly lacking in recent years.

State law calls on the board to inspect facilities at least once every two years. It failed to do that.

"Inspections of licensed death care facilities did not occur for over a year, from September 2018 to January 2020," auditors found. "Inspectors were only able to inspect 73 facilities before COVID-19 forced another halt, meaning that, for more than two years, approximately 64% of facilities in Oregon went without an inspection."

The state created the Mortuary and Cemetery Board after a 1984 scandal in which police found 15 decomposing bodies in a Lincoln City funeral director's garage. Auditors didn't uncover any similar abuses in the report they released this week, but they noted that a failure to inspect facilities puts Oregon families at risk for abuse.

"Inspections ensure death care providers are held accountable for protecting public health," auditors noted. "Additionally, under state and federal rules, facility and records inspections must also ensure compliance with key standards, such as facility cleanliness, key records requirements, and accurate price lists."

Related: Death and a salesman: An insurance agent and his well-connected pals want your money now and your body later—no strings attached.

The end-of-life industry is stretched thin this year by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has taken the lives of more than 1,400 Oregonians. Some of those people would have died anyway, but state figures show that Oregon, like other states, has experienced a large number of "excess" deaths, i.e., deaths above the number that would normally be expected.

Related: Funeral homes face the grim reality of long-distance grieving. 

In a response to the audit, Mortuary and Cemetery Board executive director Chad Dresselhaus agreed with auditors' findings and said his agency is now fully staffed with a new team and in the process of addressing previous shortcomings.

"A majority of the inspection deficiencies identified during the audit review were in the process of being revised and have continued development during the audit," Dresselhaus said in a written response.

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