New York Codes, Rules and Regulations
Title 10 - DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
Chapter II - Administrative Rules and Regulations
Subchapter J - Funeral Directing, Undertaking And Embalming
Part 77 - Practice Of Funeral Directing
Section 77.12 - Misconduct
Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 12, March 20, 2024
Misconduct in the business and practice of funeral directing within the meaning of paragraph (f) of subdivision (1) of section 3450 of the Public Health Law, shall include, but is not limited to, the following:
(a) failing to comply with the provisions of law, rules and regulations relating to the funeral directing, undertaking and embalming;
(b) exercising undue influence on a customer, misleading a customer, or misrepresenting to a customer the sale of services or merchandise and thereby taking unfair advantage of the customer, under the circumstances which existed during the course of the sale;
(c)
(d) revealing the personally identifiable facts, data or information about a decedent or customer, obtained in the business or practice of funeral directing without the prior consent of the customer, except as:
(e) delegating funeral directing responsibilities to a person when the licensee delegating such responsibilities knows, or has reason to know, that such person is not qualified by training, experience or licensure, to perform them;
(f) harassing, abusing, intimidating or otherwise threatening a customer;
(g) abandoning, neglecting, abusing or failing to treat with dignity and respect, a dead human body entrusted to the licensee;
(h) charging for services not contracted for or failing to provide or making substitution for services contracted for without the authorization of the customer;
(i) charging for any item of merchandise:
(j) making a substitution for merchandise arranged and contracted for when such substitution is not authorized by the customer;
(k) charging in excess of the amount advanced, paid or owed to third parties on behalf of the customers, or not passing along to the customer any discount, rebate or other benefit received from third parties for any items of service or merchandise described as cash advances. Cash advances shall include, but are not limited to the following services or merchandise:
(l) suggesting, or implying in any manner, that the customer's expressed concern about prices, inexpensive services or merchandise, or desire to save money, is improper or inappropriate;
(m) verbally disparaging to a customer the quality or appearance of merchandise or services which the licensee or funeral firm has advertised or offered for sale;
(n) failing to display the less expensive items of merchandise advertised or offered for sale in the same manner and condition as the more expensive items of merchandise;
(o)
(p) obtaining custody of a deceased human body without having first received from a customer explicit written or oral authorization;
(q) failing to promptly release a body and/or give information in regard to the release, care and whereabouts of a body upon the request of a customer;
(r) embalming or furnishing other services or merchandise, without having first obtained from the customer explicit written or oral authorization;
(s) making false, misleading or unsubstantiated claims directly, or by implication, as to the benefits or quality of funeral merchandise or services, including but not limited to:
(t) indicating interest charges or finance charges unless written disclosure is contained in the statement of itemization. Such disclosure shall include the payment due date after which interest charges or finance charges will be assessed, and the annual percentage rate of interest or charge, and, where repayment is on the basis of a fixed periodic repayment schedule, such disclosure shall include the interest or finance charge in dollars;
(u)
(v) displaying with caskets, outer interment or entombment receptacles, or any other funeral merchandise, any price other than the actual retail price of that particular item;
(w) inducing the customer to consent to delay or otherwise change the desired day or time of the funeral by misstating facts or circumstances relating to such funeral, burial or cremation:
(x) procuring or soliciting, or attempting to procure or solicit, funeral patronage through the use of door-to-door or telephone solicitation methods unless specifically requested by a potential customer;
(y) representing, permitting a representative to be made, or describing any funeral firm or entity as a society, fund, trust, or in any other way which might indicate that such funeral firm or entity is not-for-profit, unless such funeral firm or entity is not-for-profit, or unless such description includes a statement that such funeral firm or entity is for-profit;
(z) requiring that a casket other than an unfinished wooden box be purchased for direct cremations or failing to make an unfinished wooden box or alternative container available for direct cremations if direct cremations are arranged;
(aa) conditioning the furnishing of any funeral merchandise or services to a person arranging a funeral upon the purchase of any other funeral merchandise or services, except as required by law or as permitted by this Part. Failing to comply with a request for a combination of merchandise or services that would be impossible, impractical or excessively burdensome to provide or not regularly offered by the funeral firm shall not be misconduct.
(bb)