Queens, NY, February 14, 2013 –

Photo caption:   NYS Senator Joe Addabbo is pictured on February 7 with a representative from the NYS Department of Health’s Medicare-EPIC Program, Gema Diaz, at Nativity B.V.M.-St. Stan’s Senior Center, 101-41 91st Street, Ozone Park, which meets monthly on the first and third Thursdays in the church basement. Senior Center member Joe Caruana is also pictured.  Some 35 seniors attended the lecture.

From August through October last year, the senator sponsored EPIC lectures at several senior centers in his district (Glendale, Howard Beach, Maspeth, Ridgewood and Middle Village) covering the changes to New York’s Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage (EPIC) prescription-drug program, now that the 2012-13 state budget restored $30.6 million, and which affected EPIC members on January 1, 2013. This reinstated co-payment assistance for almost 300,000 EPIC enrollees, returning the EPIC program to two plans again.

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