USVI-On-Line

The people on this forum have such a diverse range of expertise that I thought I'd throw this out:

A dear friend's mother was transported out of state to a regional hospital and died there on March 19. The family (and life insurance co) have been waiting ever since, for the county coroner (out of state) to release a death certificate. Yes, the attorney handling the mother's affairs has also been in contact with the coroner's office. He has been saying for months, that he's ready to "wrap up his report" "tomorrow."

The family has just received notice from the life insurance company, that unless they've received the death certificate by 9/19, the life insurance funds will be turned over to the state of NY, and the family can try to seek payment.

I called several offices in the state where she died, and found that the coroner there is an elected official and therefore "answers to the voters and no one else."

Where would you start applying pressure, to get this darned death certificate? The coroner's office is answered by an answering machine that says he's "on vacation. Don't leave a message."

Thanks, if you have any ideas!

that's completely outrageous! what state is this in?

I would call the Atty Generals office and then i would also call the vital records office at the state health department (assuming that they have an interest in vital events that happen in their state--I believe (though i might be wrong) that some states have reporting agreements--at least this is true in certain registries

Minde - What about the office of the State Attorney General? Maybe they could exert some pressure. Or tell your friend to call the newspapers and TV stations in that area - they might be very interested in this type of the situation with an elected official. At least the bad publicity would keep him from being elected again. That phone message about being on vacation and don't leave a message would really get ME fuming!!

loria wrote:that's completely outrageous! what state is this in?

I would call the Atty Generals office and then i would also call the vital records office at the state health department (assuming that they have an interest in vital events that happen in their state--I believe (though i might be wrong) that some states have reporting agreements--at least this is true in certain registries

I agree that this situation is outrageous! I also would suggest contacting that state's vital records office by phone. This link might help.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/w2w.htm

Thank you, everyone! That's just the sort of leads I was looking for, and I've given my friend the phone numbers for that state's attorney general and dept. of vital statistics.
She's going to start there, this afternoon. We're in a rural, generally poor and undereducated area, and I don't know anyone with a legal or public service background, to even ask.
Today, I spoke with that county's commissioner of finance, administration, health and human services, and he was the one who told me that the coroner "answers to the voters and no one else." I'm afraid that, because she isn't a "constituent," she won't meet her deadline in 12 days, but need to try to help.
If she isn't successful with this info, we might try news outlets, but again, she is out of state, and I don't expect her case will garner much interest.
I'll let you know, and we do appreciate the leads!

Unfortunately your friend is probably at the mercy of the Coroner. It takes us sometimes up to 2 months to get a death certificate completed by the Coroner and some physicians. They don't really understand the hold up to the family. It is unfortunate with all that a family is all ready going through to have to deal with this as well. That being said, I would not stop with the answering machine message. Have your friend contact the Medical Record (HIM) Department at the hospital where the mother died. We sometimes have numbers that the general public don't have since we constantly work at trying to get death certificates complete. Tell her to ask for the manager or director of the department and explain the problem to see if they have a contact number for the coroner that is different than the number she/he has. They may have a back door number and can possibly help expidite the process. They may also have a relationship with the coroner where they can contact him on the behalf of the family. It is worth a try.

Minde - Your friend should also make the insurance company aware of what's going on. They probably have no recourse about turning the money over to an impartial state appointed "guardian" after a certain period of time without documented proof of death. This is to protect both the insurance company and her mother's estate from fraud. Their claims people, however, might have some insight as to best way to deal with this problem since it probably happens WAY more than anyone is aware of!

Thanks, again! She has made the life insurance company aware, and they say that the attorney will take care of it (and he may). It's been just 12 days short of 6 months, though, and the deadline is fast approaching. I'll give her the medical records angle, as well!

What a nightmare! I would put in a call to the local news stations. We have reporters here who do nothing but this type of stuff and help people when they are out of leads- makes for a good story for them, and the people get help- win/win!

Is the county coroner a doctor, if so file a greviance with the licencing authority

I am in life insurance, in death claims, and that information is not correct.
Without a Death certificate with a cause of death the claim is not complete and liability to pay has not been established, so they can not pay the claim...to the named beneficiary or to the state.They can close the claim for lack of information, but without proof of death they can not pay anyone.
Each state has it's own dormancy periods and I am not aware of any state that has a dormancy period that is less then a year, so that is not accurate either.

I have a million questions that I want to ask them to determine exactly what is going on, but I can not get involved if they are insured through our company.
If you want to PM me with the insurance company name, I will figure out if I can help you.
The first thing they need to do is get a copy of the policy and determine who is the named beneficiary, there may be a problem there so they are not getting complete information.

If the coroner is an elected official who only answers to the voters, make him/her answer to the voters. A PR campaign to tell voters what he does and how he hung this grieving family out to dry for 6 months cannot help him/her get reelected.

It must be a fairly large county if it has a hospital that they wanted to transfer the woman to. That means it has several news outlets.

This kind of abuse of authority should and must be given the light of day.

JIM

Is the state too far removed from your current location that your friend couldn't take a day and go over there in-person to battle it out?