COMMITTEE ON GENERATIONAL, CULTURAL & ETHNIC DIVERSITY
MINUTES: MARCH 28, 2006
10:00 AM
MEMBERS: Chair: Bernice Spreckman, Vice-Chair: Vito Pinto; Legislators: Jose Alvarado, Lois Bronz, George Oros, Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Clinton Young.
IN ATTENDANCE: Members: Bernice Spreckman, Vito Pinto, Lois Bronz, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Clinton Young. WCDSPS: Mae Carpenter, Caryl Weinstein, Laura Bolotsky and Dozene Guishard. NYSSAC: Lani Sanjek.
Guest Speakers: Joe Fiscella, Westchester Society of Pharmacists, and Mae Carpenter, Commissioner of the Westchester County Department of Senior Programs & Services.
With a quorum present, Chair Spreckman started the meeting at 10:15 AM.
Chair Spreckman spoke about the structure of GCED and the several topics the committee would be working on in the future.
On a motion of Legislator Bronz, seconded by Legislator Pinto, the minutes of January 23, 2006 and February 7, 2006 were unanimously approved.
Mr. Joe Fiscella, Westchester Society of Pharmacists, gave a presentation about the changes to the Medicare drug law and how local pharmacies are dealing with it. Local pharmacists are not happy with the changes and are often bashed because the new information is so confusing. They try and disseminate as much material as possible to seniors, but most of the information is posted on the internet, which is difficult for many seniors to access. He suggested that seniors enrolled with EPIC are in the best situation right now and complemented the strength of the EPIC program.
There was continued discussion about the changes to the Medicare drug law.
As part of the Aging Network Series, Mae Carpenter, Commissioner of the Westchester County Department of Senior Programs and Services, gave a presentation about Medicaid Regulations & Long-Term Care Insurance. She spoke about the many problems with Medicaid and lobbying Congress to fix the issues.
Commissioner Carpenter also spoke about her departments initiative to keep seniors informed about long-term care insurance. WCDSPS started a program with workshops for seniors to learn about long-term insurance, policies and changes.
Information regarding the April 24th trip to Albany was passed out and committee members discussed a tentative agenda.
Legislator Spreckman adjourned the meeting at 11:35 PM.
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