In conjunction with the 30 th Anniversary of the Great American Smokeout, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) would like to invite you to join us in helping people with Medicare break the smoking habit. This one-day event is designed to encourage 45.1 million adult smokers in the United States to quit. Although smoking rates have significantly declined, 9.3 percent of the population aged 65 and older smokes cigarettes. Approximately 440,000 people die annually from smoking-related diseases, with the majority of deaths – 68 percent (300,000) – being among people ages 65 and older.

Interest in smoking cessation is increasing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated in 2002 that 57 percent of smokers aged 65 and over reported a desire to quit. Currently, about 10 percent of elderly smokers quit each year, with 1 percent relapsing. CMS would like to take this opportunity to remind health care professionals that Medicare provides coverage of smoking and tobacco-use cessation counseling for people with Medicare who:

• Use tobacco and have a disease or an adverse health effect that has been found by the U.S. Surgeon General to be linked to tobacco use; or
• Are taking a therapeutic agent whose metabolism or dosing is affected by tobacco use as based on Food and Drug Administration-approved information.

Eligible beneficiaries are covered under Medicare Part B when certain conditions of coverage are met, subject to certain frequency and other limitations.

How Can You Help?

Seniors who quit smoking experience rapid improvements in breathing and circulation. They decrease their risk for heart disease and stroke within one year of quitting. Talk with your patients about the health benefits of smoking cessation. Older smokers have been shown to be more successful in their attempts to quit than younger smokers and respond favorably to their health care providers’ advice to quit smoking. Your quit-smoking recommendation can make a difference in the quality of life for your patients.

For More Information

• For more information about Medicare’s coverage of Smoking and Tobacco-Use Cessation Counseling Services:
  • See MLN Matters articles MM3834 http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNMattersArticles/downloads/MM3834.pdf and MM4104 http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNMattersArticles/downloads/MM4104.pdf .
  • See Smoking and Tobacco-Use Cessation Counseling Services brochure: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNproducts/downloads/smoking.pdf .
  • Visit the CMS Web site: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/home/medicare.asp .
• CMS has also developed a variety of educational products and resources to help health care professionals and their staff become familiar with coverage, coding, billing, and reimbursement for all preventive services covered by Medicare.
  • The MLN Preventive Services Educational Products Web Page provides descriptions and ordering information for all provider-specific educational products related to preventive services. The Web page is located at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNProducts/35_PreventiveServices.asp on the CMS Web site.
• For products to share with your Medicare patients, visit www.medicare.gov on the Web.
• For more information on the Great American Smokeout, please visit http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/ped_10_4.asp or call: 800-227-2345. Information on how to quit smoking is also available at www.smokefree.gov and all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and several U.S. territories now have quitlines, which can be reached by dialing 800-QUIT-NOW (800-784-8669).

Thank you for joining with CMS in encouraging people with Medicare to break the smoking habit.

CMS Learn Resource 200611-9

Posted: 11/16/2006

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