UNSPSC 85170000: Death and dying support services

Services that span all phases of end-of-life transition from hospice care to funeral services to burial and/or cremation.

UNSPSC 85170000 Death and dying support services is a Family code. State and local governments procure death investigation and postmortem laboratory services under this code, including postmortem testing, toxicology analysis, genetic sequencing, and related forensic and medical examiner support. The District of Columbia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has posted two recent RFQs for postmortem testing services under open-market blanket purchasing agreements (RFQ FY26-OCME-RFQ-BPA), with quotes due in June and July 2026, though the available sourcing provides minimal scope detail beyond the service category. Texas Health and Human Services Commission and Illinois Department of Human Services have similarly tagged clinical laboratory testing and diagnostic services under this code, despite those solicitations addressing routine clinical lab work, lead sample analysis, and substance use disorder testing that fall outside traditional death investigation and postmortem examination scope. The code shows minimal recent activity directly aligned with its nominal scope; most posted opportunities under the code label are clinical or occupational lab services misclassified in state procurement systems.

Recent state and local opportunities tagged with this code originate primarily from Washington, D.C., Texas, and Illinois, though the geographic spread reflects classification inconsistency rather than genuine procurement concentration in death and dying services. The Illinois Department of Human Services posted an emergency procurement for specialized Hantavirus testing in response to a May 2026 outbreak, executing a sole-source contract with Rush University Medical Center for molecular testing, serologic analysis, whole genome sequencing, and scientific consultation through August 2026—a genuine postmortem and outbreak investigation use case aligned with the code's scope. The District of Columbia's two postmortem testing RFQs represent the clearest match to the code's definition, yet the sourcing provides no detail on scope, volume, pricing, or performance expectations. Outside these narrow exceptions, state and local procurement under UNSPSC 85170000 in the past two months has centered on clinical laboratory services unrelated to death investigation or forensic pathology, suggesting either code misapplication in state systems or a collapse of traditional procurement taxonomy around laboratory and diagnostic testing services.