Optional Goods or Services
The Funeral Rule defines optional goods or services as everything outside of what is specifically delineated as being included in the basic service fee, including cash advance items. Some examples of optional goods or services include: - Transportation of the remains - embalming or other preparation - Use of the funeral home and staff for viewing or visitation - The funeral or memorial ceremony - Use of the hearse for transportation to the cemetery - Limousine for family or pallbearers - casket or urn - Outer burial container, if required by the cemetery - Alternate burial container - cremation or inurnment
A cash advance is used for any goods or services that the funeral home purchases from a third-party vendor on behalf of their customer. Some examples of cash advance items include: - Flowers - obituary notice - Pallbearers - Officiating clergy - Organist or soloist
The Funeral Rule stresses the importance of the consumer to clarify with the funeral home whether there is a premium charged for cash advance items. Some funeral homes pass through the exact expense to their customers, while others apply a mark-up, which is allowable under The Funeral Rule. According to The Funeral Rule, funeral homes that charge a mark-up must disclose this in writing to their customers, but the amount or percentage of the mark-up need not be disclosed. The Funeral Rule also establishes that funeral homes must disclose whether any refunds, rebates or discounts apply to any cash advance item.
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Famous quotes containing the words optional, goods and/or services:
“Our father presents an optional set of rhythms and responses for us to connect to. As a second home base, he makes it safer to roam. With him as an ally—a love—it is safer, too, to show that we’re mad when we’re mad at our mother. We can hate and not be abandoned, hate and still love.”
—Judith Viorst (20th century)
“When goods increase, those who eat them increase; and what gain has their owner but to see them with his eyes?”
—Bible: Hebrew, Ecclesiastes 5:11.
“The community and family networks which helped sustain earlier generations have become scarcer for growing numbers of young parents. Those who lack links to these traditional sources of support are hard-pressed to find other resources, given the emphasis in our society on providing treatment services, rather than preventive services and support for health maintenance and well-being.”
—Bernice Weissbourd (20th century)