Many doctors’ failure to sign death certificates in new online system delays funerals

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — To get death certificates in Indiana, a doctor’s signature is required.

For six days, the state’s new online system that issues death certificates has worked properly, despite the growing number of deaths due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Indiana State Department of Health on Tuesday reported 142 more Hoosier deaths for a total of 8,292 from the coronavirus.

Doctors and funeral directors had been told for months to register with new system, but many failed to do so, News 8 has learned. Some funerals have been delayed, and many Indiana funeral home have run out of space and are sending the deceased to other locations to await doctors’ signatures on death certificates.

Funeral director Jeff Veldhof from Lauck & Veldhof Funeral & Cremation Services in Indianapolis said he is waiting to file at least three death certificates for people who recently died. Indiana law requires a 48-hour waiting period and a signed death certificate before a person can even be cremated.

“And the real problem right now, we are the middle of a pandemic and it is definitely real. Most funeral homes right now, we are at capacity, most of us, and there has been a large upturn in deaths. The crematories are backed up a little bit,” Veldhof said.

For more than a decade, the Indiana State Department of Health has issued electronic death certificates. The Indiana Funeral Directors Association told News 8 that the previous filing system was failing and requiring constant maintenance.

The new system for issuing death certificates is completely web-based yet still requires the participation of the doctor and funeral director.

“The system was supposed to go live a year and half ago, and the state realized they just weren’t ready for that, so they scrapped what they were doing and went to this new more web-based, more user-friendly system,” said Andy Clayton, executive director of the association and chief executive officer of Hightower Services.

Doctors and funeral directors have to register with the state for the system to work. In cases where doctors or funeral home directors have not registered, a strain has been put on families whose loved ones have died. Without a death certificate, families cannot settle estates, collect insurance or, in many cases, hold a funeral. The pandemic has created a greater workload for Indiana funeral directors who need the new filing system up and running to avoid a backlog.

Clayton said, “Funeral directors, we realize how valuable that death certificate is. A lot of times, it unlocked insurance money that we are paid by to cremate. Here in the state of Indiana, we have to have a signed death certificate filed with the county health department before we can cremate. Five, six days now, we have not been operating in a system we are at record death levels in Indiana.”