The American Way of Death Revisited - Jessica Mitford [104]
The question remains: Why, after years of inactivity, was the “nationwide crackdown” suddenly announced in 1995? Whose idea was it?
According to Tom Cohn, one of the FTC lawyers in charge of the “sweeps,” these questions cannot be answered: “That is not public information,” he said. One could, of course, speculate that somebody—or bodies—in the FTC had begun to feel a wee bit nervous about renewed public scrutiny: Lisa Carlson and her assiduous surveys; parallel activity in many parts of the country by other consumer advocates; a documentary about funerals on “20/20”; my interview with Gerald Wright, plus numerous calls to the FTC by Karen Leonard, my persistent research assistant.…
Was the FTC’s tepid burst of activity intended to assure Congress and the consumer watchdogs generally that the commission was in the arena protecting the public interest? Or was it nothing more than a maneuver to distract attention from the agency’s shameful failure to take even a single step to curb the fraud and criminal misconduct that have become endemic in an industry engaged in fixing prices at ever higher levels and profiteering at the expense of bereaved families, and that has misappropriated hundreds of millions of dollars in funds entrusted for prepayment of funerals and cemetery property?
Here, for once, was government action which produced no outcry from the industry. The reason became clear when the Funeral Monitor, a privately circulated offshoot of Mortuary Management, in its January 29, 1996, issue reported:
NATIONAL FUNERAL DIRECTORS ASSN. AND FTC STRIKE UP A DEAL:
Funeral professionals will be pleased to know that the only national organization with the size and clout to make a deal with the federal government has negotiated a bold and innovative agreement regarding enforcement of the Funeral Rule. The old confrontational enforcement approach wasn’t a notable success, so somebody said let’s try something new.
Apparently that somebody was none other than the NFDA itself, for an FTC release of January 19, 1996, announcing the plan, says:
The programs were developed by the National Funeral Directors Association and will be implemented jointly by the NFDA and the FTC.… [T]hrough these programs, the funeral industry will be working together with the FTC in a committed way to resolve low compliance with the Rule’s price disclosure requirements.
Under the new plan, no longer will funeral homes be subject to a fine for violating the rule. The FTC release states that “funeral homes that failed to give test shoppers the general price lists may have the option to enter the Funeral Rule Offenders Program. Under the program, the funeral home will make a voluntary payment to the U.S. Treasury that is lower than the civil penalty the FTC can obtain for Rule violations.… Funeral home participants will benefit from reduced legal fees, reduced and tax-deductible payments to the Treasury, and free training.”
So much for the FTC’s official concession. The Funeral Monitor’s account is a far better read, and it includes some significant items omitted from the FTC’s announcement for public consumption. Here we learn that
specifics of the FTC offenders program include: The FTC will no longer publicize the names of funeral homes accused of violating the rule. Funeral homes which violate the rule will be able to avoid a complaint filed in federal court, as well as an injunction against the funeral home and owner. And to top it off, violators will receive an emblem telling consumers that the establishment is a program participant and has voluntarily agreed to comply with the provisions of the Funeral Rule.
No wonder that NFDA executive director Robert Harden exultantly told the Monitor, “These programs create a win-win situation!”
But will the FTC be able to assure the anonymity of its favored offenders—known now only as “FROPees”—under its Funeral Rule Offenders Program? Not if the ever-troublesome band of “Memorialites”—as one industry writer has dubbed them—has its way. Exercising rights under the