Who to Call When Someone Dies at Home

The First Call Depends on Whether the Death Was Expected

If the death was unexpected — no terminal diagnosis, no hospice involvement — call 911 immediately. Paramedics will respond; who pronounces the death depends on local rules, and in most jurisdictions the coroner or medical examiner will need to be involved. Don't move the body or disturb the scene until they arrive.

If the death was expected and the person was under hospice care, call the hospice agency's 24-hour number instead of 911. A hospice nurse will come to the home, confirm the death, and handle the necessary medical documentation. Hospice deaths generally don't require a coroner's involvement, which means a faster, less intrusive process for the family.

If the person was under a doctor's care but not in hospice, call their physician. The doctor can pronounce the death (or arrange for it) and sign the death certificate. If the doctor is unavailable, you may need to call 911 to have the death officially pronounced.

The Sequence After the Death Is Pronounced

Once a medical professional has confirmed and documented the death, the calls follow a specific order. Getting this wrong doesn't cause a catastrophe, but the right sequence prevents backtracking.

Call the funeral home. They'll transport the body and begin preparing the death certificate for the attending physician's signature. If you haven't chosen a funeral home, the hospital, hospice, or coroner's office can recommend one — but you are not obligated to use their suggestion. The FTC's Funeral Rule gives you the right to choose any provider and to get itemized pricing by phone.

Notify immediate family and close friends. This is the hardest call, and there's no perfect script. Keep it simple and factual. If making multiple calls feels overwhelming, ask one trusted person to help spread the word through the family network.

Contact the deceased's employer if they were still working. The employer needs to know about any final paychecks, benefits, life insurance through work, and 401(k) or pension accounts. There are often deadlines for beneficiary claims on employer-sponsored life insurance.

The Government Notifications Start Within Days

The funeral director will report the death to Social Security in most cases, but don't rely on it happening. Within the first week, you should:

• Call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 to confirm the death is recorded and ask about survivor benefits
• Follow up with Medicare if the deceased had coverage — report the death through Social Security, then call 1-800-633-4227 for coverage, claims, or billing questions
• Contact the VA at 1-800-827-1000 if the deceased was a veteran, to claim burial benefits and survivor pensions

You can begin these calls before certified copies arrive; follow each agency's instructions if it requests documentation. Certified copies commonly take one to four weeks. Order 10 to 15 copies if you expect many agencies and financial institutions to require them.

What Not to Do in the First 48 Hours

Don't start distributing personal belongings. Don't pay any debts from your own pocket. Don't sign anything a creditor puts in front of you. Don't throw away any mail, even junk mail — it can reveal accounts and obligations you didn't know about.

And don't try to do everything at once. Grief can impair working memory and attention. The administrative marathon ahead of you stretches across weeks and months, not hours.

A Roadmap for Everything After the First Call

The first 48 hours are a blur of urgent calls and immediate logistics. But once the initial shock settles, you're facing a long list of government agencies, financial institutions, and service providers that all need to be notified — each with different forms, phone numbers, and required documents.

The Government Notifications Master Checklist organizes every notification into a prioritized sequence with scripts for each call, so you can work through the list at your own pace without worrying about what you might be forgetting.