Section 10 Services and materials provided by funeral director

[ Text of section effective until July 1, 2010. For text effective July 1, 2010, see below.]

  Section 10. In case of the decease of a poor and indigent person the commonwealth shall pay for the expense of the funeral and burial of such person a sum not exceeding eleven hundred dollars; provided, however, that the total expense of the funeral and burial does not exceed fifteen hundred dollars; and provided, further, that any payment made by the commonwealth shall be reduced by whatever resources may exist in the estate of said person. The funeral director engaged in conducting the funeral and burial of said deceased person shall perform the services and furnish the materials in connection therewith as follows:-- removal of body; procuring of death certificate and burial permit; embalming and dressing of body; furnishing suitable burial garment; furnishing suitable casket, bearing metal plate with name of deceased engraved thereon; furnishing outer case of pine wood; furnishing hearse for transporting body of the deceased to a cemetery; furnishing conveyance for transporting to such cemetery the immediate family of the deceased; procuring of a clergyman, of the religion that the deceased professed, to officiate at the funeral; procuring a burial place for the body of the deceased; opening the grave, and obtaining the use of interment devices.

Chapter 117A: Section 10. Funeral and final disposition of poor and indigent person; right of reimbursement

[ Text of section as amended by 2010, 131, Sec. 68 effective July 1, 2010. See 2010, 131, Sec. 202. For text effective until July 1, 2010, see above.]

  Section 10. In case of the decease of a poor and indigent person, the commonwealth shall pay toward the expense of the funeral and final disposition of such person a sum not exceeding $1,100 to the funeral establishment; provided, however, that the commonwealth shall have the right of reimbursement from whatever resources may exist in the estate of the deceased person.