My Two Cents Worth

From the Desk of the Executive Secretary:

My Two Cents Worth--

Mack55

Last Updated: Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Crematory Operator Licensure Information Effective 12/1/2011, all cremations performed in the State of Kansas must be performed by Kansas licensed crematory operators. As of February 8, 2012, 125 crematory operator licenses have been issued. UPDATED 2-8-2012

Remember your renewal is not complete until all required paperwork has been received by the KSBMA office. This also applies when applying on-line.

Please contact us if you find any out-dated information or if links aren't working the way they should! We do our best to keep everything up to date, but your help and ideas are always appreciated!

The September 2011 edition of the American Funeral Director magazine has a series of articles on education and funeral service that are good reads.

In 2010, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found significant violations in 35 of the 126 funeral homes inspected across eight states (Kansas was not one of the states.) The FTC Funeral Rule should be old news to funeral homes by now. Are you in compliance?!

Information from the July Mortuary Science Board Advisory Board Committee at Kansas City Kansas Community College indicates enrollment continues to be strong in the fall 2011 semester. NBE Results showed 23/30 students passing the boards on the first attempt, 77%. Instructor Roger Kidwell retired after 23 years of teaching in the Mortuary Science Program at KCKCC.

The Thursday, September 15, 2011 edition of the USA Today (page 5B) has an article on a virtual cemetery program, titled: "I-Postmortem: A Demo tech start-up to die for."

House Bill 2083 Was introduced by the KSBMA and will require funeral homes that close to notify families with prefinanced funeral agreements of their closing. The bill passed the House, 117-1 and passed the Senate, 38-0. Governor Brownback approved the bill on 3/28/2011. The bill will become law upon publication in the statute book on July 1, 2011.

There was 26,083 successful requests on the KSBMA web site for the month of January 2012. UPDATED 2-8-2012

Effective December 1, 2010, a fee of $50.00 will be assessed for each cremation occurring in Shawnee County. Shawnee County Resolution #2010-110 established this fee for the Shawnee County Coroner's Office in order to offset certain costs of operations.

The 2009 Annual Summary of Vital Statistics can be found at 2009 Kansas Annual Summary of Vital Statistics

I've updated statistics provided by the International Conference of Funeral Service Examining Boards (ICFSEB) to the KSBMA's Newsletter. Stats (and you know how much I enjoy stats) are from the National Board Examination (NBE).

Our Rule Book with current laws is available on line at no cost or $5.00 per copy if ordering through our office.

On August 1, 2010 the Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has announced that the 100% air cargo screening protocols for Human Remains (HR) shipments become effective. The screening for human remains shipped by passenger airliners in the USA went into effect in February 2009 at the 50% level. There are several web sites available with useful information that you may want to look at, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and American Airlines (AA) Cargo. TSA will require 100% screening of international air cargo headed to the United States by December 31, 2011.

The Cremation Association of North America (CANA) revised their Model Cremation Law at their Board of Directors Meeting held on Friday, January 22, 2010. If you are a member of CANA, you can go to their web site and see their updated version.

Embalming Reports I know you've heard this from me in the past, but everyone should be using them--for a number of reasons! Kansas law doesn't require them, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be using them. It helps if a family asks questions after disposition or if remains are shipped via public transportation, and you are unable to recall the condition of the deceased prior to embalming, type/amount ot fluid used . . . Some examples of reports that I discovered searching the internet, include: Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 to just list a few. I suggest you contact your fluid salesperson or do some searching yourself for the one that fits your needs--or even put one together yourself, but require a signature, date and time.

PLEASE NOTE that some of the information on our web site is in pdf/Adobe Acrobat Reader format. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader already installed on your computer, please visit their site to download it.

KSBMA License Fees Look for our license fees to remain the same for the upcoming two year biennial licensing period of January 1, 2012 until December 31, 2013. This will mean that fees will have remained the same for eight (8) consecutive years, four (4) biennial licensure periods. We do our best to not raise fees unless we absolutely have to.

Questions, Thoughts, Suggestions??? Please let me know if there is anything else you would like to see us include on this page or anywhere on our website. Constructive criticism is always appreciated. Our contact information is listed below. My email address is: mack.smith@ksbma.ks.gov UPDATED 2-8-2012

700 SW Jackson Street, Suite 904 - Topeka, Kansas 66603-3733
phone: (785) 296-3980 - fax: (785) 296-0891 - email: boma1@ksbma.ks.gov

Regular Business Hours: 8 a.m.-12 noon and 1:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday - Friday
We're a small agency, so sometimes we count on the answering machine or emails when we're not available.
Please leave us a message on our voice mail if we are unable to answer your call or send us an email at: boma1@ksbma.ks.gov