Rule 203.44 Procedures and Criteria for Inspections of Licensed Entities (a) Inspection Procedures. (1) All licensed funeral establishments, commercial embalming facilities, and crematories shall be inspected at least once every two years. (2) All inspections shall be unannounced. (3) The inspector shall review prior inspection reports before inspecting a licensed entity. If prior reports reveal problems, the inspector shall determine whether the licensed entity has corrected the previously identified problems or whether a pattern of violations or new violations exists. (4) Inspectors shall use reasonable efforts to conduct inspections between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., but a licensed entity is required to be open at all times to inspections for violations of Occupations Code, Chapter 651, and Health and Safety Code, Chapters 193, 361, 711, and 716. (5) If a licensed entity is not open for business during regular business hours and an inspector is unable to contact any employee or owner to open the licensed entity to conduct the inspection, the inspector shall notify the licensed entity by mail of the attempted inspection. If a licensed entity is unavailable for inspection during regular business hours twice during a six-month period, the Commission may file a complaint against the licensed entity, making the licensed entity subject to an administrative penalty or other action. (b) The Commission may classify a licensed entity as risk-based for the following reasons: (1) Previously found violations of Occupations Code, Chapter 651, and Health and Safety Code, Chapters 193, 361, 711, and 716, following a regular inspection. (2) Multiple violations of Occupations Code, Chapter 651, or Rules of the Commission. (3) Change of ownership. (4) Newly issued license. (c) Notwithstanding subsection (a)(1) of this section, a licensed entity may be inspected annually if the Commission classifies the entity as risk-based. (d) The Commission will declassify an establishment as risk- based if it has two consecutive inspections with no found violations and/or it has no proven violations within a two- year period. (e) If the Commission is in the process of conducting an investigation of a licensed entity, staff may inspect the licensed entity for the limited purpose of proving or disproving the validity of the complaint. The scope of inspections under this paragraph shall be limited to matters relating to the subject of the complaint. Rule 203.45 Unprofessional Conduct (a) The Commission may, in its discretion, refuse to issue or renew a license or may fine, revoke, or suspend any license granted by the Commission if the Commission finds that the applicant or licensee has engaged in unprofessional conduct as defined in this section. (b) For the purpose of this section, unprofessional conduct shall include but not be limited to: (1) Providing funeral goods and services or performing acts of embalming in violation of Occupations Code, Chapter 651, the Rules of the Commission, or applicable health and vital statistics laws and rules; (2) Refusing or failing to keep, maintain, or furnish any record or information required by law or rule, including a failure to timely submit any documentation requested during the course of a Commission investigation; (3) Operating the licensed entity in an unsanitary manner; (4) Failing to practice funeral directing or embalming in a manner consistent with the public health or welfare;
(5) Obstructing a Commission employee in the lawful performance of such employee’s duties of enforcing Occupations Code, Chapter 651, or the Rules of the Commission; (6) Copying, retaining, repeating, or transmitting in any manner the questions contained in any examination administered by the Commission; (7) Physically abusing or threatening to physically abuse a Commission employee during the performance of his lawful duties; (8) Conduct which is willful, flagrant, or shameless or which shows a moral indifference to the standards of the community; (9) In the practice of funeral directing or embalming, engaging in: (A) Fraud, which means an intentional perversion of truth for the purpose of inducing another in reliance upon it to part with some valuable thing belonging to him, or to surrender a legal right, or to issue a license; a false representation of a matter of fact, whether by words or conduct, by false or misleading allegations, or by concealment of that which should have been disclosed, which deceives or is intended to deceive another; (B) Deceit, which means the assertion, as a fact, of that which is not true by any means whatsoever to deceive or defraud another; (C) Misrepresentation, which means a manifestation by words or other conduct which is a false representation of a matter of fact; (10) Communicating directly or indirectly with a Commissioner during the pendency of a complaint in connection with an issue of fact or law, except upon notice and opportunity for each party to participate; (11) Attempting to influence a complainant or witness in any complaint case to change the nature of the complaint, or withdraw the complaint by means of coercion, harassment, bribery, or by force, or threat of force; (12) Retaliating or threatening to retaliate against a complainant who has filed a complaint with the Commission in good faith; (13) Failing to make payment to a subcontractor for consumer-related services performed by the subcontractor pursuant to an agreement with the licensee; or (14) Violating any Texas law or administrative rules governing the transportation, storage, refrigeration, interment, cremation, or disinterment of the dead. Rule 203.46 Price Disclosure (a) In selling or offering to sell funeral goods or funeral services to the public it is an unfair or deceptive act or practice for a funeral provider to fail to furnish accurate price information disclosing the cost to the purchaser or prospective customer for each of the specific funeral goods and funeral services used in connection with the disposition of deceased human bodies. Such price information must include at least the price of embalming, transportation of remains, use of facilities, caskets, outer burial containers, urns, immediate burials, or direct cremations. Any funeral provider who complies with the preventive requirements in subsection (b) of this section is not engaged in the unfair or deceptive acts or practices defined here. (b) To prevent these unfair or deceptive acts or practices, as well as the unfair or deceptive acts or practices defined in §203.49(b)(1) of this title, funeral providers must: (1) Telephone price disclosure. Tell persons who ask by telephone about the funeral provider’s offerings or prices any accurate information from the price lists described in paragraphs (2) (5) of this subsection and
Book Code: FTX1624
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