A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to appropriate funds to Provide indigents with funeral and burial services.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Health and Human Services the sum of three million dollars ($3,000,000) in recurring funds for the 2008‑2009 fiscal year to be allocated to county Departments of Social Services to assist with the cost of funeral services for indigent residents. The allocation shall be fairly distributed upon a pro rata basis to each county based upon the numbers of residents on public assistance programs in a county. The county Departments of Social Services shall make a determination of eligibility for payment assistance, based upon readily available information, as to whether the deceased was enrolled or could have been enrolled in Medicaid, food stamp program, or other public assistance program. For deceased indigents referred to funeral homes by a county Department of Social Services or otherwise determined by a county Department of Social Services to be eligible for payment assistance, the county Department shall reimburse the funeral home for actual costs, not to exceed one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500) per indigent, for providing funeral, cremation, and burial services to the eligible indigent.  Reimbursement shall be made pro rata and on an annual basis to funeral homes based on available funds. These funds shall not revert at the end of the fiscal year but shall remain available until expended for this purpose.
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2008.