News Updates

From The World Wide Web 

Cemetery Bill Clears Colorado State Senate (USA)

VA Looks Into Burial Mistakes At Cemeteries (USA)

 Planning Ahead for a Funeral Saves Time and Money (USA)

Dressed for a Successful (final) Exit (Canada)

Tales From The Crypt (Canada)

FTC Conducts Undercover Investigations of Funeral Homes (USA)

(Click on Headline)

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Convention Exhibits Nearly Full

There are only 7-of them left as of May 3rd!

We are having tremendous response from vendors and suppliers of funeral products to our annual convention coming up June 19th through the 21st in Milwaukee. We started in January with 65-exhibit spaces. Because we will be in a larger venue at the downtown Hilton, that number represents twice the exhibit space that we had at our convention last year.

Right now, we have 52-exhibitors committed to come to the convention, requiring 58-of those available spaces. That means, that with over a month and a half to go until the event, we only have 7-exhibit spaces left.

We are observing genuine excitement by exhibitors at the prospect of participating in our convention and interacting with our membership.

Here is the list of exhibitors who have already registered for the convention:

Major Sponsors:

Batesville Casket Company - Brewers Box Suite

Brown-Wilbert Burial Vaults - Brewers Box Suite

Federated Insurance Company - Brewers Box Suite

Milwaukee Casket Company - Transportation Buses

Milwaukee/Waukesha Funeral Directors Association - President's Reception

Founder Level: ($1,000 Sponsorship)

CCI Communications

Signature Casket

President Level: ($500 Sponsorship)

American Academy McAlister Institute of Funeral Service

Aurora Casket Company

Blood Center of Wisconsin

Contemporary Concepts

Deaton-Kennedy Company

Dodge Chemical Company

FFH Design

Federated Funeral Directors of America

Genesis Caskets

Hoffman Burial Supplies, Inc.

Keystone Funeral Home Design and Build

Lion's Eye Bank of Wisconsin

Marjorie King Studios

National Funeral Directors Association

Northwoods Casket Company

Steinhaus Supply Service

Urns Unlimited

Director Level: ($350 Sponsorship)

ASD-Answering Service for Directors

Bass-Mollett Publishers

E.C. Manger & Sons Caskets

Elliot Urn and Supply

Fond du Lac Wilbert Vault Company

Forever Woodworks, LLC

Frigid Fluid Company

F.R.S.R. Crematory Repair

Homestead Insurance Company

Keith M. Merrick Company

L.B. Medwaste

Messenger Corporation

Mikota Caskets

Milwaukee Bagpiper

Miller Architects and Builders

National Cashflow Services

NGL Insurance Company

Northern Sound and Video

Pekin Life Insurance Company

RTI Donor Services

Unity Casket Company

U of Minnesota Program of Mortuary Science

Wilde Equipment Company

Sponsors-At-Large:

Baines Professional Vehicles, Inc.

Wisconsin Funeral Trust

Requia Life Insurance Company

Wisconsin Funeral Directors Association

As you can see, there will be a good representation of manufacturers and suppliers at our convention this year, giving our members a good look at the newest product lines available to our industry. Just like last year, the exhibit space is contained in the same area where meetings and presentations to members will take place, making exhibitors highly accessible to our members. There is twice the exhibit space and nearly twice as many exhibitors as last year's convention, so there will be a lot to see and do.

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Convention Registration Packets Sent

Members should have all received their convention registration materials by now. The packets were all sent to main funeral homes, so it is important for owners to distribute this material to all of their branches.

Some of the highlights of this year’s convention:

Tuesday evening: At 5:15 p.m. 150-of us will head for Miller Park to watch the Milwaukee Brewers as they host the Toronto Blue Jays. We will be watching from three special box suites, complete with food and beverages, sponsored by Batesville Caskets, Brown-Wilbert Burial Vaults and Federated Insurance. Tickets are $50.00 each. There are just 150-tickets available and they are only for convention-registered members and their immediate family members. This event is not for vendors and exhibitors. Milwaukee Casket Company is providing bus transportation to and from Miller Park for convention goers. We might add that the Brewer game has turned out to be a very popular event and if you are planning to go, we suggest you do not delay in getting your registration back to us.

Wednesday evening: It is back to the buses at 5:15 p.m. for a trip to the Potawatami Casino, which will be the site of the President’s Reception, sponsored by Milwaukee/Waukesha County Funeral Directors Association and the Wisconsin Funeral Trust. Hors d’oeuvres will be served and there will be a cash bar.

A humorous program, will be presented by Milwaukee Radio Personality, Jane Matenaer. Jane’s father was a licensed funeral director and she literally grew up in a funeral home. She will share her experiences in a program entitled, "Morgue to Microphone.” Funeral directors will have a special appreciation for her humorous insights as she shares from her personal experiences.

In between and following these "special” events, there will be the usual convention fare with business meetings, CE presentations, exhibit visiting and just schmoozing and networking with other funeral professionals.

You won’t want to miss this one!

Recalls are in full bloom

While political observers were focused on final months of the legislative session they kept one eye fixated on the recall process. Now that session has officially come to an end, everyone's full attention has turned to the impending recall elections and the fall primary process, which has been accelerated to mid-August in order to comply with federal law. The Government Accountability Board met on March 30th to formally certify the recall elections.

Incumbents facing a recall election will automatically be placed on the ballot and challengers would have until April 10th to circulate nomination papers. Any primaries will be held on May 8th with the general election to be held on June 5th.

At this point, four democratic hopefuls have announced their candidacy; former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, state Senator Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma) and Secretary of State Doug Lafollette (D-Madison) announced earlier. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett has now thrown his hat into the ring rounding out the number to four formally announced democratic candidates against Governor Scott Walker (R-Wauwatosa).

In yet another twist, the Senate recalls were thrown a curve ball when first-term Senator Pam Galloway (R-Wausau) announced abruptly that she was resigning for family reasons. This resignation has split the balance of power in the Senate to 16 republican and 16 democratic senators. In Galloway’s absence, state Representative Donna Seidel (D-Wausau) will face off against state Representative Jerry Petrowski (R-Marathon). In the Eau Claire area incumbent State Senator Terry Moulton (R-Chippewa Valley) will be challenged by former state Representative Kristen Dexter (D-Eau Claire). Dexter beat Moulton in their 2008 Assembly match-up.

In southeastern Wisconsin, state Senator Van Wanggaard (R-Racine) will face off against the man he defeated in 2010 former state Senator John Lehman (D-Racine). Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) will face opposition from Lori Compas (D-Fort Atkinson). Compas is a political newcomer who organized the recall effort against Fitzgerald.

Wisconsin matters

April 3rd marked the return of the presidential primary in Wisconsin to the first Tuesday in April. Eight years ago the primary election was moved up to February to coincide with Wisconsin's non-partisan primaries. This was done to enhance Wisconsin’s significance in the national presidential selection process. Wisconsin wasn't the only state to employ this rational and move up their primary.The increasingly front loaded primary process began to threaten the relevance of the first in the nation primaries so the national party leaders stepped in and enacted penalties upon certain states which held primaries prior to March 6th. Wisconsin obliged and moved its primary back to April.

Fortunately, this hasn't diverted the candidate’s attention from Wisconsin as the Republican primary has lasted longer than expected.

WFDA

Update:  Burial Trust Caps and Cremation Reimbursement

A WFDA team of Scott Peterson, Tom Moore (lobbyist) and Scott Gilligan (legal counsel) recently met with officials of the Secretary’s office at the Wisconsin Department of Health on two topics: Raising the burial trust cap to $4500 and reimbursement for crematories that share the same tax i.d. number with a funeral home.

Burial Trust Cap --

As you know the new burial trust caps for Medicaid were to increase from $3,000 to $4,500 on February 1st. Those caps did go into effect but there is a problem with the state agency’s interpretation and implementation of the new law.  There appears to have been an error in the way the program was presented to the federal agency for approval.  That error is allowing the state department of health to interpret the change in a way that was never intended by the legislature and will increase the administrative burden on funeral directors and their families.

  We are working through the issue with the department and hope to have resolution soon.  Once we have some clarity on how best to proceed we will let you know, but until then, we continue to advise that you use trusts just exactly as before under the $3,000 cap.

Crematory Reimbursement --

Some funeral homes who own crematories have been denied Medicaid reimbursement if the crematory business shares the same tax i.d. number with the funeral home.  The Medicaid program policy won’t reimburse the crematory unless it is a ‘separate business’ from the funeral home. The department has used the tax i.d. in the past as a way to distinguish what is a ‘separate business’. We have argued with the department that crematories and funeral homes are separate businesses on the grounds that one deals with funeral services and the other with final disposition regardless of their federal tax i.d. number. 

Legal Counsel Scott Gilligan also pointed out that there is nothing in federal law requiring the department to administer it this way, nor is there anything in state law or Department of Health regulations that requires the use of the federal tax i.d. to determine what is a ‘separate business’.

We are continuing our discussions with the department on these two issues and hope to have resolution very soon.

WFDA

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WFDA Goes to Washington

Recently, WFDA leaders Robert Patten, Mark Jelacic, Paul Andrus and John Wenig, along with Executive Director Scott Peterson, attended the NFDA Advocacy Summit in Washington. As part of the event funeral directors are educated on federal issues affecting funeral service and then spend one full day visiting the congressional delegations of their respective states.

During the trip, every member but one of the Wisconsin congressional delegation received a visit from WFDA.  It made for a long day as the delegation walked the long halls of the massive congressional office buildings, to hold separate meetings with each member. This is the fourth year we have visited the entire delegation and they are beginning to recognize us as we come in the door of their offices.

During our meetings we asked them to support bills that would: (1) allow unclaimed veterans cremated remains to be interred at a veterans cemetery; (2) make permanent the funeral trust exclusion under the Social Security Administration; (3) make permanent the current federal estate tax.

WFDA

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Insurance Agent Pre-Licensing School

Preparations are being made to present pre-licensing classes to those members of WFDA who wish to become insurance agents.  Twenty two funeral directors from various parts of the state have shown an interest in taking the course.  If you have people in your organization who wish to take these classes, it is important that you let us know before we begin to choose the locations around the state where the classes will be held.  We anticipate presenting classes in all four regions of the state.

 Contact Gary Wodka, WFDA Director of Education at 608-256-1757 or e-mail him at gary@wfdaextra.com. 

Your response will help us set the time and place for these classes.

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State Working on Electronic Death Registration                                           

The Wisconsin State Registrar's Office is continuing to working on building a state electronic death certificate system in which funeral directors will be able to file Death Certificates on-line. 

John Kiesow, State Registrar has been in contact with the WFDA and some of our funeral directors to receive input on how to construct the system to work best for the funeral director. During the rest of 2012 they will begin communicating with funeral directors directly about how to get connected to the system as well as how to receive training and certification to use the system. 

 To that end, the State Registrar, John Kiesow, is sending out a memo to all funeral homes asking for contact information.  The State Regisrar's Office will then use this contact information to communicate with each funeral home about the new system and how to prepare for it.  The state has announced it will spend most of 2012 developing and testing thoroughly this new Electronic Death Registration System (EDRS). 

 WFDA will continue to work closely with the State Registrar on training of funeral directors as we move towards implementation. If you have any questions, please give us a call at 608-256-1757.

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