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The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday passed a resolution eliminating the $400 fee that medical examiners had been charging for the transportation and storage of bodies, allowing grieving families to pay that financial burden as an act of compassion. should be exempted.
Under state law, when a sudden, violent, or unnatural death occurs, the body is typically taken to the coroner.
The county coroner also evaluates unattended deaths, or deaths in which the patient was not seen by a physician or a registered nurse who is part of the hospice team in the 20 days prior to death.
The unanimous vote comes less than a year after the county launched a pilot program that completely waived fees for county residents. Until now, families were charged the cost of transporting the body from the scene of death to the medical examiner’s office.
“These fees are often unexpected and county residents are responsible for paying them,” Supervisor Hilda L. Solis said before Tuesday’s vote. “We must ensure that the county does everything it can to practice compassion and equity by continuing to ease the financial burden on residents who are trying to put a loved one to rest.”
Los Angeles County officials said an analysis of county data found the fees disproportionately impact poor residents. Dr. Oday C. Ukpo, the county’s chief medical examiner, previously told the county commission that in recent years, only half of families have been able to pay the fees. Before the pilot program began, county officials said medical examiners would waive fees on a case-by-case basis if families claimed they could not pay.
“The burden of reaching out and seeking help should not be placed on someone who has recently lost a loved one,” Supervisor Janice Hahn said when the pilot program was approved last year.
Mr Hearn on Tuesday acknowledged that it was Mr Ukpo who came up with the idea of abolishing county fees. That would make Los Angeles County the only jurisdiction in the state to halt such charges, she said.
The coroner’s September report estimated that waiving fees for about six months would cost the county $360,000 and save hundreds of families. A spokesperson for the medical examiner’s office estimated that eliminating the fee completely would reduce revenue by about $1 million a year.
Ukpo told county commissioners the department saves about $500,000 a year by avoiding unnecessary trips from hospital to facility. Los Angeles County CEO Fecia Davenport added that she and her staff have already identified funds to replace the loss of revenue.
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