Your hospice benefit does not pay for the funeral itself. The care before a death is covered under the benefit, as far as that benefit goes, but the arrangements that follow are a separate set of decisions with their own prices. Most families learn this in the hour after a death, when the phone is ringing and no one has eaten. This article is for the family who wants to look at those prices now, while your parent is still in the house and there is room to ask questions.
Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.
Ask the hospice what happens after the death
Ask the hospice nurse what the agency does when a death happens at home, whom it calls, and how it hands the next steps to the funeral home. Ask whether the hospice keeps a list of funeral homes it works with. A list is not a requirement, and the family is free to choose any funeral home. Ask what the hospice expects from the family in that first hour, so the family does not have to guess.
Know which choices move the price
Most of the cost of a funeral sits in a short list of choices. Burial or cremation comes first. Within burial, the cemetery plot, the vault or liner the cemetery requires, and the opening and closing fees make up the largest share. Within cremation, the container and any service or viewing you add change the total. A viewing or visitation, whether at the funeral home or somewhere else, adds staff time and facility use. Embalming is one item you can ask about, and under the federal funeral rule a funeral provider generally may not require it for most arrangements. Obituary notices, flowers, printed programs, and the number of death certificates are smaller items that add up.
Ask for the general price list in writing
The federal funeral rule, enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, requires a funeral home to give an itemized general price list to anyone who asks in person, and to let you buy only the goods and services you choose. Ask for the list before you sit down to choose anything. Compare the lines that matter most to your family, and ask the funeral director to explain any line you do not understand. If a funeral home hesitates to hand over the list, treat that hesitation as information about the rest of the conversation.
Count the death certificates before you order them
Death certificates are needed for many small tasks after a death, and each certified copy has a fee. Ask the funeral director how many copies they recommend, what each one costs, and whether they will order them for you or you will order them yourself. Missouri's death records are kept by the state health department, and some county offices issue copies as well. Ask which office the funeral home uses before you pay for a rush order.
Check the veterans burial benefits
If your parent served in the armed forces, the Department of Veterans Affairs has burial benefits that may include a burial allowance, a grave marker, and other items. Eligibility depends on service and other facts, and the amounts change, so check the VA's own pages rather than a figure you heard from a neighbor. Ask the funeral director whether they have filed veterans claims before and what they will need from the family to start.
Count your own time and travel
The cost that does not appear on any itemized list is the time the family spends. Time off work, trips between the house, the funeral home, the cemetery, and the pharmacy, and the hours on the phone are real costs. Some funeral homes add fees for after-hours removal, so ask about that directly. If you can, make the decisions you can make in daylight before the death, and leave only the unavoidable ones for the hour you are in.
For the broader question of what the hospice does and does not cover, the main page of this site lays out the hours and the gaps. The sources page lists the federal, VA, and Missouri references behind these points.