CDC Report Calls on States to Boost Medicaid Tobacco Cessation Coverage

Feb 8, 2008

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this week called on states to dramatically increase their Medicaid tobacco dependency treatment coverage. The CDC report cited the Healthy People 2010 goal of instituting total health insurance coverage for evidence-based tobacco cessation treatments in all 51 state Medicaid programs, AHA News Now reports. In this week's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the CDC outlines results from a 2006 nationwide survey, which indicates that 39 state Medicaid programs offer some form of tobacco-dependence treatment coverage for beneficiaries, one-third of whom smoke. While all programs cover some form of pharmacotherapy and 17 states cover some form of cessation counseling services, many Medicaid programs have limitations on coverage for treatment. Barriers include co-payments, requirements for prior authorization, caps on treatment duration, requirements that patients try one form of therapy before beginning another and provisions for covering a single treatment type at a time. Reinforcing results of a May 2007 Institute of Medicine report that recommended all health plans offer lifetime tobacco cessation benefits, the CDC advocates full Medicaid coverage for recommended tobacco-dependence treatments to reduce tobacco use (AHA News Now, 2/7/08; CDC report, 2/8/08).