Bush Administration Officials Continue Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Tour in Arizona, California, Montana
Bush administration officials this week visited several states to promote the new Medicare prescription drug benefit as part of a "100-city tour" scheduled to end in late September (California Healthline, 8/5).
- Arizona: HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt on Wednesday discussed the prescription drug benefit before an audience of Medicare beneficiaries and senior advocates at the Armory Park Senior Center in Tucson (Erikson, Arizona Daily Star, 8/11). Leavitt on Wednesday also visited Phoenix, where he answered questions from Medicare beneficiaries about the prescription drug benefit (Snyder, Arizona Republic, 8/11).
- California: CMS Administrator Mark McClellan on Wednesday spoke about the prescription drug benefit before an audience of 100 health care administrators, physicians, community organizers and Medicare beneficiaries at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center. Earlier on Wednesday, he visited the San Francisco Mission Neighborhood Health Center (Said, San Francisco Chronicle, 8/11).
- Montana: CMS Deputy Administrator Leslie Norwalk on Monday presented an outline of the prescription drug benefit to more than 370 attendees at an event in the West Park Plaza in Billings. The event, sponsored in part by the Yellowstone County Council on Aging, was attended by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) (Gransbery, Billings Gazette, 8/9).