Medicare offers counseling to help smokers quit

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Older Americans who want to quit smoking can receive counseling through Medicare to help them kick their tobacco habit, but only if they suffer from certain diseases or health problems, government officials said on Tuesday.

Officials for Medicare, the nation’s health insurance program for the elderly, said those who stop smoking can still improve their health even if they smoked for years.

“The evidence fully supports the hope that seniors with diseases and health effects caused by smoking and tobacco use can quit, given the right assistance,” said Mark McClellan, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Not all enrollees will benefit, and the new coverage will not pay for drugs, patches or other products touted to curb smoking. Such medications, if they are a prescription, could be covered under a Medicare drug benefit that starts in 2006.

To receive the counseling, Medicare patients must suffer from heart or lung disease, weak bones, cataracts or other diseases caused or worsened by tobacco use.

It would also cover patients taking insulin or other medicines that can be less effective with smoking, including drugs to treat High Blood Pressure, depression and blood clots.

A CMS spokesman could not immediately say how many of the 41 million elderly enrolled in Medicare would qualify for the benefit.

The American Medical Association (AMA) said most seniors would probably be able to claim the benefit because there are so many health problems among smokers.

“Because there are so many tobacco-related illnesses and adverse health effects from tobacco use, the AMA believes the majority of seniors who smoke will be covered under the new Medicare policy,” said AMA trustee Ronald Davis.

About 9 percent of Americans age 65 and older smoke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A 2001 CDC report found about 38 percent of smokers age 65 to 74 and 30 percent of those 75 and older had tried to quit during a one-year period.

Tuesday’s decision finalizes the coverage first announced in December and allows patients to seek help from any provider, not just those trained in smoking cessation techniques as first proposed.

Partnership for Prevention, a coalition of pharmaceutical companies, patient adequacy groups, state health departments and others, asked Medicare to consider paying for counseling.

John Clymer, president of the coalition, said talking with patients can provide an inexpensive way to curb the habit and eventually save on other costs. “We also expect that, over 10 years, this is going to ... prevent over 30,000 premature deaths, and it’s cheap,” he said.

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