COUNTYWIDE : Fee Hikes Approved for Coroner’s Office
The County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a new fee schedule that will substantially increase costs to insurance companies, attorneys and others who want autopsy reports and other information from the county coroner.
Under the new rates, which take effect next week, an autopsy report from current “in-house” files will cost a flat fee of $50.25, while one that has to be retrieved from the archives will cost $187. Pathologist consulting reports will cost as much as $98, while audio and videotapes will run from $117 to $122.
According to Jim Beisner, chief deputy coroner, the public had been charged reproduction fees of a $1.30 for the first page and 50 cents for the remaining pages of a report. He said that price has remained the same for nearly a decade.
The new rate schedule, Beisner said, will increase revenue by $360,000 annually. Under the current system, the coroner’s office, a division of the county Sheriff’s Department, generates only $40,000 a year in fees for reproducing reports.
Beisner said that of 14,000 deaths last year in Orange County, 2,500 resulted in autopsies by the coroner’s division.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
