CHARLESTON — A West Virginia program that helps with burial expenses for indigent residents will have exhausted its funding by Feb. 28 as the state Legislature is working on a bill to address the situation.

The funding available to operate the Indigent Burial Program for the remainder of the state’s fiscal year, ending June 2018, has been exhausted, said Linda Watts, acting commissioner for DHHR, in a letter to Robert Kimes, executive director of the West Virginia Funeral Directors Association.

“There will be no funds to reimburse pending 2017-2018 invoices after February 2018,” Watts wrote in her letter. “Any of those unpaid invoices would have to be addressed in the court of claims.

“If reimbursements are received by DHHR from previously paid burials, additional payments may be issued from those reimbursements for pending invoices received after February 2018.”

DHHR will not be in a position to issue payment from the fund if no reimbursements are received, she said.

“The Department plans to reopen the Indigent Burial Program on July 1, 2018, when the program reopens; only applications for individuals who received burial services after July 1, 2018, will be accepted,” Watts wrote.

West Virginia Code 9-15-18 requires the Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) to pay reasonable funeral expenses for indigent persons, including the cost of disposing human remains. The DHHR pays the expenses from the Indigent Burial Fund, a line item in its annual budget.

For state fiscal year 2017, DHHR was allocated $2,050,000 for payment of indigent burials with a reimbursement per burial of up to $1,250, said Jessica N. Holstein, Assistant Director of Communications for DHHR.

From July 1, 2017, to January 26, 2018, the West Virginia DHHR has processed 1,317 invoices for payment of indigent burials statewide, she said, adding there were approximately 83 indigent burials in Wood County during that time.

Kimes said the fund will run out of money four months before the start of the next fiscal year.

The state’s opioid epidemic and the Baby Boomer generation starting to pass away has created a demand for the service in recent years, he said.

With the cost of a casket, container and related services, many funeral homes make no money doing indigent burials, Kimes said.

“Many are doing it as a community service,” he said. “It is hard on funeral homes.”

This is the third year the fund has run out of money before the end of the fiscal year, said Stephen Leavitt, co-owner of Leavitt’s Funeral Home in Parkersburg.

Leavitt’s has tried to work with families to meet their needs.

“We serve any family that comes in,” he said.

Depending on circumstances, they have provided discounts and have donated things as part of the arrangement with the families, he said.

The cost of cremation is making it more affordable for many funeral service providers to be able to do something for indigents.

A bill introduced in the West Virginia Legislature, HB 4024, would reduce the payments in the indigent burial program to $1,000 each but would loosen some of the requirements of the program, like having cremation be the preferred method of disposition, unless there is a religious objection which would result in going straight to burial.

Kimes said, under the bill, the services and materials that funeral homes were required to provide in the past are being reduced.

“Less would be required from the funeral directors,” Kimes said of caskets, grave containers and other expenses they had to provide in the past.

Leavitt said it is getting harder for the state to find money to be able to help people.

Under this bill, Leavitt said some of the leeway funeral homes had to help families to supplement the state funds would no longer be available with services going directly to the disposition.

However, the over $2 million budget for indigent burials could be spread out to cover more people.

Under the bill, for every four burials under the old system another can be added, Kimes said, adding the bill has a lot of support from funeral directors across the state.

The bill also lets the DHHR determine the financial assets of a deceased person and whether the deceased’s estate or any of his or her relatives who are liable for the expense can pay. This includes a spouse, the children, the parents and any siblings.

“It will see if the immediate family has the means to pay,” Kimes said.

The bill passed the House of Delegates, 65-33, on Feb. 14. The bill was introduced in the Senate on Feb. 15 and sent to the Finance Committee where it passed out. It was introduced on the Senate floor and was on its second reading on Friday.

The bill would also require any indigent services to be handled by funeral establishments in West Virginia, Kimes said of an amendment added to the bill in the Finance Committee. The state has had to deal with fraud issues where people in border states have been trying to take advantage of the program to have someone buried in West Virginia.

“We want to keep tax dollars in this state,” Kimes said.

The bill will be introduced in the Senate Wednesday.

“This is the best DHHR bill short of more funding,” Kimes said.