X-Message-Number: 23279
From: "Basie" <>
Subject: Death Certificate
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2004 18:57:57 -0500

I wonder how widespread this problem is. After all one needs the certificate
to be frozen. We can't wait for two to six months.
Basie
From the NYT.
Death and the City
By WILSON H. BEEBE Jr.

Published: January 17, 2004


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nless you're going to spontaneously combust like Krook in Dickens's "Bleak
House," something must be done with you when you die in New York, and that
something requires a document. At some point, your name and Social Security
number must cross a Health Department desk.

Without a certified death certificate, survivors cannot begin probate on a
will, make claims on life insurance policies, apply for Social Security
benefits, or perform a host of other tasks involving the business of life.

Obtaining a death certificate is the responsibility of the funeral director.
Because of New York's antiquated death registration system, it can take two
to six months to get one. In that time, families suffer financially since
they can't get survivors' benefits and insurance payments. Unfortunately,
the city is doing little to make things easier. Last month, Mayor Michael R.
Bloomberg vetoed a City Council measure that would have required New York to
adopt an electronic death registration system, vastly speeding the process,
by October 2006.

The main problem with the current system is that with about 60,000 deaths
per year, it is nearly impossible for one office to deal politely or
efficiently with all the people who come in for death certificates. Yet
right now, the Office of Vital Records at 125 Worth Street is pretty much
the only place one can go to complete the record-keeping requirements for
death certification. (It wasn't always this way. A decade ago, there were
five places one could file, but then they were closed as part of budget
cutting.)

And just gathering all the documentation the city requires is
time-consuming. A doctor has to certify the cause of death, but getting to a
doctor who can - or will - sign the death certificate and identify the
causes of death can be difficult. There are also benign cases that must go
through the chief medical examiner: cremation requires special authorization
and all residential deaths must also pass through his office before the
certification process can proceed.

There are also complications, like public administrator cases for people who
die without survivors and for indigents, both of which require slightly
different procedures. The determined funeral director must follow the death
certification through each process. Eventually, with documentation in hand,
funeral directors approach the window at 125 Worth Street with genuine
trepidation. You never know what you're going to get: a burial or cremation
permit and no certificate; a certified death certificate; or, the worst
case, "bounced" all the way back to the beginning.

Maybe they bounce you because you used the wrong color ink or because the
time of death was given in 24-hour time or because they think the causes of
death are unacceptable. There are primary (or underlying) causes of death,
followed by secondary and tertiary ones, and the clerk on duty may take a
dislike to one of them. Getting bounced can mean starting the death
certification process all over again - although, usually, the person on duty
will relent and issue a burial permit in spite of an error (but he won't
give you the necessary "certified copies" until corrections have been made).

In 1994, the Metropolitan Funeral Directors Association came up with a
solution: put the process online, allowing doctors, funeral directors and
medical examiners to file their information over the Internet, forever
eliminating the need for anyone to go to 125 Worth. Mistakes could be fixed
quickly. Burial permits could be sent out electronically and certified
copies could follow via overnight mail.

Such a system would eliminate the vagaries of the current process, improve
the quality and timeliness of public health data, save the city a small
fortune in personnel costs and spare families the agony of waiting months
for a certified certificate when the process goes awry.

Based in part on our recommendations, the Department of Health started to
develop an electronic system with I.B.M. in 1998. Six years and more than
$10 million later, as shown in an audit by the city's comptroller, every
initiative has been misdirected, stalled, objected to and worked around.

Meanwhile, New Jersey, which began to develop a system about the same time
as New York City, officially began to use electronic death registration this
year.

It's possible for New York City to catch up. The city says it indeed will
develop an electronic system, but it hasn't set any deadlines - Mayor
Bloomberg's main stated objections to the bill he vetoed were that it
usurped his authority and set an unrealistic time line. But without some
sort of targets, we may face another decade of inactivity.

Unless the city begins to modernize the way it does business, 125 Worth
Street may have to register a few more deaths - when frustrated funeral
directors, like Krook, spontaneously combust.


Wilson H. Beebe Jr. is the executive director of the Metropolitan Funeral
Directors Association.




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