[Federal Register: July 10, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 133)]
[Notices]               
[Page 39698-39700]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr10jy08-63]                         

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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

 
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB 
Review; Comment Request; Extension

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission (``Commission'' or ``FTC'').

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The information collection requirements described below will 
be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (``OMB'') for 
review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (``PRA''). The FTC 
is seeking public comments on its proposal to extend through July 31, 
2011, the current PRA clearance for information collection requirements 
contained in its Funeral Industry Practice Rule (``Funeral Rule'' or 
``Rule''). That clearance expires on July 31, 2008.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before August 11, 2008.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties are invited to submit written comments. 
Comments should refer to ``Paperwork Comment: FTC File No. P084401'' to 
facilitate the organization of comments. A comment filed in paper form 
should include this reference both in the text and on the envelope and 
should be mailed or delivered to the following address: Federal Trade 
Commission/Office of the Secretary, Room H-135 (Annex J), 600 
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20580. Because paper mail in 
the Washington area and at the Commission is subject to delay, please 
consider submitting your comments in electronic form, as prescribed 
below. If, however, the comment contains any material for which 
confidential treatment is requested, the comment must be filed in paper 
form, and the first page of the document must be clearly labeled 
``Confidential.'' \1\
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    \1\ Commission Rule 4.2(d), 16 CFR 4.2(d). The comment must be 
accompanied by an explicit request for confidential treatment, 
including the factual and legal basis for the request, and must 
identify the specific portions of the comment to be withheld from 
the public record. The request will be granted or denied by the 
Commission's General Counsel, consistent with applicable law and the 
public interest. See Commission Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).
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    Comments filed in electronic form should be submitted by clicking 
on the following: https://secure.commentworks.com/ftc-FuneralRule and 
following the instructions on the Web-based form. To ensure that the 
Commission considers an electronic comment, you must file it on the 
Web-based form at https://secure.commentworks.com/ftc-FuneralRule. You 
also may visit http://

[[Page 39699]]

www.regulations.gov to read this Rule, and may file an electronic 
comment through that website. The Commission will consider all comments 
that regulations.gov forwards to it.
    All comments should additionally be submitted to: Office of 
Management and Budget, Attention: Desk Officer for the Federal Trade 
Commission. Comments should be submitted via facsimile to (202) 395-
6974 because U.S. Postal Mail is subject to lengthy delays due to 
heightened security precautions.
    The FTC Act and other laws the Commission administers permit the 
collection of public comments to consider and use in this proceeding as 
appropriate. All timely and responsive public comments will be 
considered by the Commission and will be available to the public on the 
FTC website, to the extent practicable, at http://www.ftc.gov. As a 
matter of discretion, the FTC makes every effort to remove home contact 
information for individuals from the public comments it receives before 
placing those comments on the FTC Web site. More information, including 
routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, may be found in the FTC's 
privacy policy at http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of the proposed information requirements for the Funeral Rule 
should be addressed to Craig Tregillus, Attorney, Division of Marketing 
Practices, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission, 
Room H-288, 600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20580, (202) 
326-2970.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On March 28, 2008, the FTC sought comment on 
the information collection requirements associated with the Funeral 
Rule, 16 CFR Part 453 (Control Number: 3084-0025).\2\ No comments were 
received. Pursuant to the OMB regulations, 5 CFR Part 1320, that 
implement the PRA, 44 U.S.C. 3501-3521, the FTC is providing this 
second opportunity for public comment while seeking OMB approval to 
extend the existing paperwork clearance for the Rule. All comments 
should be filed as prescribed in the ADDRESSES section above, and must 
be received on or before August 11, 2008.
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    \2\ 73 FR 16681.
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    The Funeral Rule ensures that consumers who are purchasing funeral 
goods and services have accurate information about the terms and 
conditions (especially prices) for such goods and services. The Rule 
requires that funeral providers disclose this information to consumers 
and maintain records to facilitate enforcement of the Rule.
    The estimated burden associated with the collection of information 
required by the Rule is 20,300 hours for recordkeeping, 101,389 hours 
for disclosures, and 40,600 hours for training, for a total of 162,000 
hours (rounded to the nearest thousand). This estimate is based on the 
number of funeral providers (approximately 20,300),\3\ the number of 
funerals per year (approximately 2.4 million),\4\ and the time needed 
to fulfill the information collection tasks required by the Rule.
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    \3\ The estimated number of funeral providers is from data 
provided on the National Funeral Directors Association Web site (see 
http://www.nfda.org/careers.php), which was accessed in March 2008.
    \4\ The estimated number of funerals conducted annually is 
derived from the National Center for Health Statistics (``NCHS''), 
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/. According to NCHS, 2,448,017 deaths 
occurred in the United States in 2005, the most recent year for 
which final data is available. See National Vital Statistics 
Reports, vol. 56, no. 10 ``Deaths: Final Data for 2005,'' available 
at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr56/nvsr56_10.pdf.
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    Recordkeeping: The Rule requires that funeral providers retain 
copies of price lists and statements of funeral goods and services 
selected by consumers. Based on a maximum average burden of one hour 
per provider per year for this task, the total burden for the 20,300 
providers is 20,300 hours. This estimate is lower than FTC staff's 2005 
estimate of 21,500 hours due to a decrease in the number of funeral 
providers.
    Disclosure: The Rule requires that funeral providers: (1) Maintain 
current price lists for funeral goods and services, (2) provide written 
documentation of the funeral goods and services selected by consumers 
making funeral arrangements, and (3) provide information about funeral 
prices in response to telephone inquiries.
    1. Maintaining current price lists requires that funeral providers 
revise their price lists from time to time throughout the year to 
reflect price changes. Staff estimates, consistent with its current 
clearance, that this task requires a maximum average burden of two and 
one-half hours per provider per year for this task. Thus, the total 
burden for 20,300 providers is 50,750 hours.
    2. Staff retains its prior estimate that 13% of funeral providers 
prepare written documentation of funeral goods and services selected by 
consumers specifically due to the Rule's mandate. The original 
rulemaking record indicated that 87% of funeral providers provided 
written documentation of funeral arrangements, even absent the Rule's 
requirements.\5\
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    \5\ In a 2002 public comment, the National Funeral Directors 
Association asserted that nearly every funeral home had been 
providing consumers with some kind of final statement in writing 
even before the Rule took effect. Nonetheless, in an abundance of 
caution, staff continues to retain its prior estimate based on the 
original rulemaking record.
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    According to the rulemaking record, the 13% of funeral providers 
who did not provide written documentation prior to enactment of the 
Rule are typically the smallest funeral homes. The written 
documentation requirement can be satisfied through the use of a 
standard form (an example of which the FTC has provided to all funeral 
providers in its compliance guide).\6\ Based on an estimate that these 
smaller funeral homes arrange, on average, approximately twenty 
funerals per year and that it would take each of them about three 
minutes to record prices for each consumer on the standard form, FTC 
staff estimates that the total burden associated with the written 
documentation requirement is one hour per provider, for a total of 
2,639 hours [(20,300 funeral providers x 13%) x (20 statements per year 
x 3 minutes per statement)].
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    \6\ The FTC has provided its compliance guide to all funeral 
providers at no cost, and additional copies are available on the FTC 
Web site, http://www.ftc.gov, or by mail.
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    3. The Funeral Rule also requires funeral providers to answer 
telephone inquiries about the provider's offerings or prices. 
Information received in 2002 from the industry indicates that only 
about 12% of funeral purchasers make telephone inquiries, with each 
call lasting an estimated ten minutes.\7\ Thus, assuming that the 
average purchaser who makes telephone inquiries places one call per 
funeral to determine prices, the estimated burden is 48,000 hours (2.4 
million funerals per year x 12% x 10 minutes per inquiry). This burden 
likely will decline over time as consumers increasingly rely on the 
Internet for funeral price information.
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    \7\ No more recent information thus far has been available. The 
Commission invites submission of more recent data or studies on this 
subject.
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    In sum, the burden due to the Rule's disclosure requirements totals 
101,389 hours (50,750 + 2,639 + 48,000).
    Training: In addition to the recordkeeping and disclosure-related 
tasks noted above, funeral homes may also have training requirements 
specifically attributable to the Rule. While staff believes that annual 
training burdens associated with the Rule should be minimal because 
Rule compliance is generally included in continuing education 
requirements for state licensing and voluntary certification

[[Page 39700]]

programs, staff estimates that, industry-wide, funeral homes should 
incur no more than 40,600 hours related to training specific to the 
Rule each year. This estimate is consistent with staff's assumption for 
the current clearance that an ``average'' funeral home consists of 
approximately five employees (full-time and part-time employment 
combined), but with no more than four of them having tasks specifically 
associated with the Funeral Rule. Staff retains its estimate that each 
of the four employees (three directors and a clerical employee) per 
firm would each require one-half hour, at most, per year, for such 
training. Thus, total estimated time for training is 40,600 hours (4 
employees per firm x 1/2 hour x 20,300 providers).
    Estimated annual cost burden: $3,524,000 in labor costs and 
$1,226,000 in non-labor costs.
    Labor costs: Labor costs are derived by applying appropriate hourly 
cost figures to the burden hours described above. The hourly rates used 
below are averages.
    Clerical personnel, at an estimated hourly rate of $13, can perform 
the recordkeeping tasks required under the Rule. Based on the estimated 
hour burden of 20,300 hours, the estimated labor cost burden for 
recordkeeping is $263,900.
    The two and one-half hours required of each provider, on average, 
to update price lists should consist of approximately one and one-half 
hours of managerial or professional time, at an estimated $27.50 per 
hour, and one hour of clerical time, at $13 per hour, for a total of 
$54.25 per provider \8\ [($27.50 per hour x 1.5 hours) + ($13.00 per 
hour x 1 hour)]. Thus, the estimated total labor cost burden for 
maintaining price lists is $1,101,275 ($54.25 per provider x 20,300 
providers).
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    \8\ Based on the National Compensation Survey: Occupational 
Wages in the United States, June 2006, U.S. Department of Labor, 
Bureau of Labor Statistics (June 2007) (``BLS National Compensation 
Survey'') (citing the mean hourly earnings for funeral directors as 
$22.11/hour), available at http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/sp/
ncbl0910.pdf. As in the past, staff has increased this figure on the 
assumption that the owner or managing director, who would be paid at 
a slightly higher rate, would be responsible for making pricing 
decisions. Clerical estimates are derived from the above source 
data, applying roughly a mid-range of mean hourly rates for 
potentially applicable clerical types, e.g., bookkeeping, file 
clerks, new accounts clerks, data entry.
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    The incremental cost to the 13% of small funeral providers not 
previously providing written documentation of the goods and services 
selected by the consumer, as previously noted, is 2,639 hours. Assuming 
managerial or professional time for these tasks at approximately $27.50 
per hour, the associated labor cost would be $72,572.50 (2,639 hours x 
$27.50 per hour).
    As previously noted, staff estimates that 48,000 hours of 
managerial or professional time is required annually to respond to 
telephone inquiries about prices. The cost of 48,000 hours of 
managerial or professional time for responding to telephone inquiries 
about prices at $27.50 per hour, is $1,320,000 (48,000 hours x $27.50 
per hour).
    The cost of training licensed and non-licensed funeral home staff 
to comply with the Funeral Rule is two hours per funeral home, with 
four employees of varying ranks each spending one-half hour on 
training. Consistent with estimates in the current clearance, the 
Commission is assuming that three funeral directors, at hourly wages of 
$27.50, $20, and $15, respectively, as well as one clerical or 
administrative staff member, at $13 per hour, require such training, 
for a total burden of 40,600 hours (20,300 funeral homes x 2 hours 
total per establishment), and $766,325 [($27.50 + $20 + $15 + $13) x 1/
2 hour per employee x 20,300 funeral homes].
    The total labor cost of the three disclosure requirements imposed 
by the Funeral Rule is $2,493,847.50 ($1,101,275 + $72,572.50 + 
$1,320,000). The total labor cost for recordkeeping is $263,900. The 
total labor cost for disclosures, recordkeeping and training is 
$3,524,000 ($263,900 for recordkeeping + $766,325 for training + 
$2,493,847.50 for disclosures), rounded to the nearest thousand.
    Capital or other non-labor costs: The Rule imposes minimal capital 
costs and no current start-up costs. The Rule first took effect in 1984 
and the revised Rule took effect in 1994, so funeral providers should 
already have in place capital equipment to carry out tasks associated 
with Rule compliance. Moreover, most funeral homes already have access, 
for other business purposes, to the ordinary office equipment needed 
for compliance, so the Rule likely imposes minimal additional capital 
expense.
    Compliance with the Rule, however, does entail some expense to 
funeral providers for printing and duplication of price lists. Assuming 
that two price lists per funeral/cremation are created by industry to 
adhere to the Rule, 4,800,000 copies per year are made for a total cost 
of $1,200,000 (2,400,000 funerals per year x 2 copies per funeral x 
$.25 per copy). In addition, the estimated 2,639 providers not already 
providing written documentation of funeral arrangements apart from the 
Rule will incur additional printing and copying costs. Assuming that 
those providers use the standard two-page form shown in the Compliance 
Guide, at twenty-five cents per page, at an average of twenty funerals 
per year, the added cost burden would be $26,390 (2,639 providers x 20 
funerals per year x 2 pages per funeral x $.25). Thus, estimated non-
labor costs are $1,226,000, rounded to the nearest thousand.

William Blumenthal,
General Counsel.
 [FR Doc. E8-15659 Filed 7-9-08; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6750-01-P