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House Business Committee approves updated mortician rules, raises biennial licensing fees
Summary
The committee approved revisions to the Idaho State Board of Morticians rules that reorganize chapters, clarify trainee supervision, change continuing education timing, require pre-licensure inspections, remove duplicative provisions, and shift to biennial licensing with roughly 20% fee increases to meet cash-balance guidance from last year.
John Price, bureau chief for the Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses (DOPL) occupational licensing bureau, presented the State Board of Morticians’ pending rules to the House Business Committee on Jan. 21. The board submitted a consolidated rewrite intended to remove redundancies, align rules with statute, and address the board’s fund balance requirements.
Key changes approved by the committee included: removing language duplicative of statute for resident trainee requirements; changing the trainee supervision requirement to require a trainee to be under a mortician’s supervision for any 12 months within a three-year training period instead of 50 weeks in a single year; clarifying what “immediately available” supervision means (in person or remote consultation); requiring inspections before initial licensure; deleting rules made duplicative by statute or federal regulation; and reorganizing the chapter order for clarity.
On continuing education, the rules move from 8 hours annually to a 10-hour requirement every two years (the presenter described it as 10 hours biannually, aligned to contiguous-state averages per Idaho Code guidance). The board proposed changing licensing from annual renewals to a biennial cycle and combining that with approximately a 20% fee increase. Price gave an example: an annual funeral director license previously $85 would be a $170 biennial fee; with the proposed 20% increase the biennial fee was described as $200.
Price said the board’s finances were in the red (he cited a deficit just under $60,000 as of Sept. 30, 2024). He told the committee the 20% fee increase is a step toward meeting the division’s directive, but said a much larger increase (about 135%) would be required to reach the division’s recommended 30% cash balance target by 2029. Committee members asked whether procedural or substantive services would change; Price said inspections and current enforcement practices would continue and the rule changes primarily remove duplication and clarify practice standards.
Representative Birch moved to approve the docket; the committee approved the rules by voice vote.
Why this matters: the rules affect licensing, training and compliance for funeral establishments and morticians statewide, and include a fee structure change intended to improve the board’s cash balance consistent with DOPL direction.
What’s next: the approved pending rule will be implemented as final under administrative procedures; DOPL and the board may return in future rulemaking for more substantial fee adjustments if needed.
