The latest issue of the SMART Transportation Division News is an online-only edition. To view, click here. To view earlier editions of SMART TD News, click here.
Former SMART TD (UTU Local 1348) Washington State Legislative Director Thomas R. Retterath died Monday, November 2, 2015 at the Hospice Care Center following a battle with cancer. Retterath was drafted and served in the U.S. Army from 1964 to 1966. In 1971 he began his railr [...]
Every three years, the Railroad Retirement Board’s Chief Actuary conducts a study of the longevity of its annuitants, as part of a valuation of future revenues and benefit payments. The following questions and answers summarize the results of the most recent longevity study. [...]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released the 2016 Part B premium and deductible costs for 2016. Railroad Medicare processes claims for Part B services. The 2016 monthly premiums will remain unchanged for approximately 70 percent of Medicare benefic [...]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has announced that the standard monthly Part B premium will be $121.80 in 2016. However, most Medicare beneficiaries will not see an increase in their monthly Part B premiums because of a “hold harmless” provision in the law. U [...]
John J. Naughton, former associate designated legal counsel of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen and United Transportation Union, died Oct. 29, 2015. Naughton fought for the rights of railroad and other transportation workers as an employee of the former firm of Henslee, M [...]
World War I – known at the time as “The Great War” – officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or tempo [...]
Chicago – The railroad retirement system will experience no cash-flow problems during the next 32 years; barring a sudden, unanticipated, large drop in railroad employment or substantial investment losses, according to the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) in its report to [...]
CLEVELAND – Buried under the rust, the decades of peeling paint jobs, the thousands of miles, the dirt and the gunk is a golden era. It was a time when today’s industrial wastelands employed most of America, and the railroad was the country’s lifeline. [...]
We all know the joke: if you have poor penmanship, you should become a doctor. Unfortunately, poor penmanship on patient notes and records can lead to claim denials, because if Medicare can’t read what the doctor wrote, we can’t know if the services were reasonable and neces [...]
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