For healthcare providers

Encouraging your patients to quit smoking is one of the most important things you can do as a healthcare professional. Connecting smokers and other tobacco users with evidence-based treatments, including FDA-approved medications and behavioral counseling, greatly increases their chances of a successful quit.

Each time a clinician intervenes with a patient who uses tobacco, that patient’s likelihood of quitting increases by 30%. Even brief interventions lasting less than 3 minutes are effective. You may need to intervene repeatedly with your tobacco-using patients, just as you would when assisting patients with managing any chronic condition. Most tobacco users try to quit multiple times before they are successful.

Follow Guideline recommendations that best fit your practice. The U.S. Public Health Service’s Clinical Practice Guideline Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence: 2008 Update was designed to assist clinicians in identifying and assessing tobacco users and in delivering evidence-based tobacco dependence treatment. The Quick Reference Guide for Clinicians provides a summary of guideline cessation intervention strategies for use on a day-to-day basis.

Remind your MassHealth patients that their benefits cover all FDA-approved cessation medications and behavioral counseling with no or very low co-payments. MassHealth covers all FDA-approved smoking cessation medicines and counseling. This factsheet from the Department of Public Health provides information for providers about the MassHealth tobacco cessation benefit.

Refer patients to QuitWorks. QuitWorks is a free, evidence-based referral service that connects patients with phone-based counseling through the Massachusetts Smokers’ Helpline to help them stop smoking.

Reinforce with patient education materials. The Massachusetts Health Promotion Clearinghouse offers free brochures and guides for your patients about quitting smoking. Order some for your office today.

Learn more.

• Quit-smoking solutions for healthcare settings
• Tobacco treatment trainings
• Massachusetts saves $3 for every $1 spent helping smokers quit through MassHealth.
  • Summary of study showing cost-savings
    
  • Study showing cost-savings
    
  • About the MassHealth smoking cessation benefit