SMU Retired Faculty Association
Announcements:
Informal Luncheon Gathering:
The Activities Committee has arranged for a way for Retirees and/or Spouses to gather for casual luncheon on the last Wednesday of each month. Ed Forest is coordinating these events and he has arranged for a room at the La Madeleine Restaurant at Forest Lane and Preston Road (North East quadrant). The time is set for 12:30pm. Participants can go through the serving line and once past the cashier move to the back of the restaurant to the room on the right hand side. The next gathering is
Wednesday, MAY 27, 2009 at 12:30 pm
The contents of this Web site are the sole responsibility of the SMU Retired Faculty Association and do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of Southern Methodist University. The administrator of this site is John McCarthy who may be contacted at
mccarthy@smu.edu
The Board of Directors consists of 9 members elected by the membership. Members of the Board of Directors serve three-year terms, with terms staggered so that part of the Board membership is elected each year. Sufficient members of the Board will be elected each year to bring the total membership to nine persons. The current members of the Board are:
OFFICERS
PHONE
Pres.
Thomas Arp
tarp@smu.edu Vice Pres.& Pres. Elect
Darwin Payne Treasurer
Jim Gerhardt 214.350.7595 Past Pres.
Ed Forest 972.387.1626 forest@engr.smu.edu Other Board Member NAME Term of Office James E. Brooks until 2009 Campbell Reed until 2011 Peggy Loft until 2011 John McCarthy until 2010 Carter Murphy until 2010 Patricia Webb until 2009 William Power until 2010
Retired Faculty Bulk E-mail List You are invited to join the Retired Faculty e-mail list that will provide you on events involving retired faculty plus campus events in general. You DO NOT need to have an SMU e-mail address to join the system. To join please send an e-mail message that includes your name and the name of the Department from which you retired to join-retiredfaculty@list.smu.edu
Foreign Travel and the Absence of Medicare Coverage
As retirees well know, Medicare does not cover any medical emergencies while the individual is outside the United States; the person on Medicare is not covered while traveling in Canada, Mexico and other 'foreign' countries. As of January 1, 2008, the SMU Medical Benefit for retirees is the Emeriti Medical Plans operated by Aetna Insurance. The Emeriti plans can be used for medical emergencies during foreign travel. However, the retiree will have to be reimbursed after the travel AND after the medical expenses have been paid. For further details contact Ms. Sheri Starkey, SMU Department of Human Resources.
Some commercial Medigap supplements DO cover medical emergencies during foreign travel. Each commercial Medigap provider offers a number of supplemental "PLANS" (plans A through J). Each plan has specific types of supplemental coverage that are mandated. Only Plans A and B exclude coverage of foreign travel; all other plans have a foreign travel benefit. In general the Medigap plan acts like Medicare for medical events during foreign travel. That is, the Medigap plan covers those treatments or procedures abroad that would be covered by Medicare and pays 80% of the costs that would normally be approved by Medicare. The general statement of benefits from a Commercial Supplemental Medicare Policy is as follows:
Medicare and Foreign Travel: Care Outside the U.S. This benefit (i.e. the supplemental policy) pays 80% of the cost of emergency medical care that begins during the first two months of each trip. The individual pays a $250/year deductible. There is a lifetime benefit of $50,000
HEALTH CARE ABROAD
The magazine, Travel+Leisure provides a wealth of information on vacation sites, travel tips and tours. In the May 2003 issue had an excellent article on Health Care Abroad. The information is of interest to both employed individuals and retirees. Employed individuals are urged to check their medical insurance policies to determine whether or not the policy covers travel abroad! The article presents information on items to be considered in determining IF one should have medical treatment abroad. The article concludes by listing several providers of trip or travel health insurance with the phone number and web site of each provider. Those insurance providers are listed below (with the approval of Travel+Leisure magazine).
Recently several other sources of travel insurance have been suggested. Those providers are also listed. These providers are all listed for informational purposes and should not be considered as specific recommendations of our retiree group.
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HTH Worldwide www.highwaytohealth.com 888.965.2358
Insure My Trip www.insuremytrip.com 800.487.4722
Medjet Assistance www.medjetassistance.com 800.826.1300
Travel Guard International www.travelguard.com 800.826.1300
Other providers include::
John W. Cook www.quotewright.com/index.html 800.821.4940
UTravelPro www.1TravelInsurance.com 800.694.4311
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For the full text of the informative article see the web site of the magazine: www.travelandleisure.com
There is a search window that can be used to locate the article mentioned above. Type into the window travel insurance and click on search. From the options look for the article on Health Care Abroad; click on that selection.
For direct access to the article click on the address below:
www.travelandleisure.com/invoke.cfm?objectid=8EE44456-7B7B-4F4A-837771252F0F6062
Retirees are able to use Perkins Chapel for weddings and for memorial or funeral services. The calendar of the times and dates for which the Chapel can be reserved is kept in the Office of the Dean of Theology and in the Office of the University Chaplain, Will Finnin; phone 214-768-4502. The Chaplain's pager number, 214-249-3303, can be used to contact him after hours or on weekends. A statement on reserving Perkins Chapel for a service has been added to the Handbook for Retired Faculty (Section 4, item 6)
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MEDICARE and SUPPLEMENTAL MEDICARE (Medigap) INSURANCE COVERAGE
The Emeriti Medical Plans that serve as the SMU medical benefit for retirees include Medicare Supplemental Insurance and a Prescription benefit both offered through Aetna Insurance Company. Since the Aetna Medical Plans are supplemental medicare insurance, retirees will have no need to seek additional 'Medigap' coverage.
The three Aetna prescription plans are all based on the Medicare Part D prescription coverage. Two of the Aetna plans offer medication coverage that is more generous (and with higher premiums) than classical Medicare Part D insurance. Retirees who enroll in the Emeriti Medical Plans, that include the Aetna Prescription plans, are automatically enrolled in Medicare Part D coverage. Details of these plans will be available in the Handbook for Retired SMU Faculty, 2008 version and in Appendix 1 to that handbook. Both documents will soon be available on this web site.
Retirees who decline to participate in the Emeriti Plans will lose this SMU Benefit and will not be re-admitted to the program at a later date (contact SMU Department of Human Resources for details). Those who decline the SMU benefit will need to have other sources of Medigap Coverage and for Prescription coverage Other sources of Medigap and Medicare Part D coverage include the following:
American Association of Retired Persons Health Care Options www.aarphealthcare.com/
Blue Cross- Blue Shield www.bcbs.com/glossary/glossary.html www.myhealthinsurancetexas.com
Other companies that provide Medigap Policies and the cost of
such policies can be found on the web site of the Texas Department of Insurance
www.tdi.state.tx.us There
is also useful information on Medicare itself. Please Note the following,
on the Home Page of the Texas Department of Insurance, there are three boxes at
the top marked:
SEARCH
POPULAR
LINKS
FORMS
Just below those boxes, in small blue print are a number of terms. To obtain information on policy costs Click On the term rate guide 2nd line, near the right end of the list of terms. There is a list marked Latest News that contains other information of interest. The Texas Department of Insurance web site also provides information on costs of other types of Insurance coverage
To go to the Medicare web site select www.medicare.gov {that will take you away from this site}
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Photos from October 2002 Meeting
Digital images taken at the Retired Faculty Meeting can be viewed here. Just prior to our meeting, SMU held the dedication of "The Wave" fountain designed by Dr. Santiago Calatrava of Spain. Dr. Calatrava was awarded the Meadows prize last year. There are images of The Wave fountain and of Dr. Calatrava.
The Program of the meeting included a presentation of Physics demonstrations used in teaching. We learned that the "Bed of Nails" featuring 4000 nails was constructed by Jeff Chalk with the aid of his wife Sarah. The name Tenure Track seemed in order.
The battery of the digital camera was weakening during the afternoon and apologies are given for the quality of the images. The photos from the Auditorium were particularly dark. It was necessary to use a computer program to lighten the images sufficiently to be viewed. The skill required for good image adjustment was (obviously) greater than that 'available'. Better images will be added as skill improves. To see photos on an MS Word Page, click Photos. To see the images as power point slides click RFA.ppt. .
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Subscribe to Faculty Bulk E-Mail List
Through the good works of John La Prade, it is now possible for any Retired Faculty Member to have her/his e-mail address included on the "Faculty Bulk Mail List". In this way the retiree can receive messages of events or items of importance sent to Active Faculty. In subscribing to this list, the e-mail addresses of retirees become part of a Retired Faculty List. To add your e-mail address to this list simply send a blank e-mail to join-retiredfaculty@list.smu.edu, Click on the e-mail address in 'blue' in the line above to bring up an e-mail form that can be used to subscribe to the Faculty Bulk e-mail list (just send the blank e-mail, it is not necessary to add text etc.). Those operating the list in the computer center have already added the names of some retirees to the list.
There is a second advantage to retirees subscribing to the e-mail list. Retiree names are added to a sub-list "retiredfaculty". This sub-list will allow officers of the Retired Faculty Association to send e-mail messages to those retirees whose e-mail addresses are on the list.. The list offers a way to communicate items of importance to retired faculty e.g. events associated with Medical Plans and the Benefits Council and notices of coming meetings etc.
An individual can elect to unsubscribe to the list; just follow the directions that are given on the bottom part (footer) of each message received as bulk e-mail.
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Handbook For
Retired SMU Faculty
and
APPENDIX-1-Rx Plans
The Handbook for SMU Retired Faculty was prepared by members of the SMU Retired Faculty Association with the assistance of Ms. Sheri Starkey, SMU Department of Human Resources. The handbook includes an explanation of the Emeriti Health Plans that makes use of programs operated through Aetna Insurance. Through Emeriti, retirees become enrolled in an Aetna Medicare Supplemental Insurance option and in an Aetna Prescription (Rx) option.
The Aetna Rx Plans are based on the Medicare Part D Prescription benefit. The differences in the 3 Aetna Rx plans are summarized in the Handbook. However, the Medicare Part D plan and the 3 Aetna Rx plans involve deductibles and several stages where there are variations in the participants co-payments for prescriptions. Those stages depend on the contributions paid by the retiree and/or the total cost of prescriptions. For those individuals who wish to review the extensive details, please view or download the Appendix-1-Rx document.
Please note that official SMU Information on retirement policies can come only from the SMU Department of Human Resources, the Handbook is NOT an official SMU document. Ms. Sheri Starkey Dept. Human Resources can be contacted by telephone at 214/768-2024. If she is unavailable, you will be directed to a another staff member who can assist you.
To view or download the Handbook click on the link Handbook_2009
To view or download the Appendix click on the link Appendix-1-Rx
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Aims and Membersip
The organization is a non-profit, unincorporated group whose objective is to serve the needs of retired faculty members and to clarify and enhance the continuing relationship of retired faculty to SMU and to advance the welfare and interests of the university. Every retired member of the SMU faculty and his/her spouse is considered to be a member of the association unless any such person requests to be excluded from membership.