Monday, August 04, 2003

By Gary Rotstein, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

No one can stop the Pittsburgh Memorial Society from advocating for low-cost, no-frills funerals, but someone could prevent the name change it is seeking to clarify that mission.

That's not to say that the State Board of Funeral Directors will do any such thing when it meets Wednesday to consider the society's desired new moniker, Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Pennsylvania, but the state board has the right to veto it.

Pennsylvania law gives broad oversight authority to the state board over everything to do with funerals, from licensing of new practitioners to the maintenance of their embalming rooms to what they call their businesses.

That oversight is broader still for use of the word "funeral." The board's control extends beyond industry operators to any other business or organization that wants to adopt the word as part of a formal name.

That hurdle surprised Diane Nedved when the Pittsburgh Memorial Society volunteer filed the name change request in May with the Pennsylvania Department of State. She was routed to the state board for approval before anything official could take place.

"Rules and regulations are just part of life. Sometimes I can see the reason for hoops to jump through, and sometimes I can't," said Nedved, an accountant and retired lawyer from Mt. Lebanon.

The name change is on the agenda for the state board's monthly meeting Wednesday, and there's no known opposition to it.

The former Memorial Society of Greater Philadelphia underwent a similar name change with board approval in 2000, just as the affiliates' national headquarters did without any government scrutiny.

The national Funeral Consumers Alliance has encouraged affiliates to adopt the same name, both for consistency and because "memorial" and "society" have become terms increasingly used by for-profit providers within the industry, said Joshua Slocum, executive director of the national group.

"We were confused by the public with being part of the funeral industry," Slocum said, noting 65 of the organization's affiliates -- a little more than half -- have undergone name changes such as the Pittsburgh group seeks.

Jim Pinkerton, an Avalon funeral director who is chairman of the state board, said the name review exists so that no one misleads the public about providing funeral services.

"We don't want someone who is a nonlicensed entity ... to appear to the public that they are in fact a provider," Pinkerton said. "I don't foresee a problem [for the Pittsburgh Memorial Society's name change]. The intent of the rule is not to inhibit organizations like that from doing their job."

One of the society's primary goals is promoting modest funerals, particularly for the 3,500 or so area households counted as members. It has cost agreements with more than two dozen local funeral homes that provide such arrangements, typically using cremation, and the society tries to educate the public about low-cost options.

Those efforts may hamper the bottom line of funeral homes oriented toward more traditional visitation ceremonies with embalming and open caskets. That's not supposed to color the funeral board's review, although a majority of its members are funeral directors.

"They certainly meet the needs of a segment of the population. I have never heard anything bad about them," said Pinkerton, who is not among the local funeral directors that have a relationship with the memorial society and obtain customers through it.

At least one "funeral" name request was denied in recent years.

A funeral director who did not own a funeral home but wanted to sell pre-need funeral insurance sought to become Cumberland Valley Funeral Consultants. The board prohibited both the name and operation of the business because the applicant lacked a funeral home to carry out whatever contracts were signed, said Brian McDonald, Department of State spokesman.

He said such jurisdiction over wording is not limited to funeral matters. Separate boards that license architects, engineers and pharmacists, among others, must approve anyone's use of those terms in a corporate name, whether for profit or nonprofit.

While such control perplexes Nedved, she's hoping the letter she sent to the board outlining the reasons for the name change after 46 years is sufficient to proceed.

"If they deny it, I'll have to cross that bridge later," she said.

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