Source: Arizona Office of Vital Records
After consulting with our Attorney General liaison, it was determined that Funeral Homes do have the ability to request and receive on behalf of immediate family members, 1 free copy of a certified death certificate for Social Security claims and 1 free copy of a certified death certificate for Veteran Affair use. These Social Security and Veteran Affair certificates are to be released to the family without restriction (i.e., not to be placed on any type internal hold by the Funeral Home.) The supporting rules for this decision can be found under: R9-19-404 and R9-19-414. Thank you for your patience while we resolved this issue with our liaison.
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The State Office has received notice that some funeral homes are printing the print certificate white copy of the death record from VSIMS and have been using it for the following
- To allow the family to verify the death information entered into VSIMS is correct before the record is submitted to the county for registration. Acceptable Use but, DO NOT give a copy to the family.
- To provide a copy of the death record to the airlines to ship the human remains. DO NOT USE for this purpose. The funeral home must apply for a certified copy from the county.
- To give a copy to the family. DO NOT USE for this purpose. Only a certified copy of the death record shall be given to the family.
The county and state will continue to monitor this and if the issues continue to occur, we may consider disabling the print capability.
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On Thursday, September 12, 2013 from 10:00 am to 11:00 am, Bianca Soto will be holding a conference call for funeral homes. The conference number will be posted the morning of the call. This will be an opportunity for funeral homes to ask questions regarding information listed above, etc. Counties are welcome to participate as well.