What news update for smoker

[Sci Medical & Health]

Update 1:

Gov't to Cover Smoking Cessation Programs
By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - You're never to old to quit smoking, government officials said Tuesday, announcing that Medicare will immediately start covering the cost of counseling for certain beneficiaries who want to quit tobacco.

Medicare's new smoking cessation program "has great potential to save and improve lives for millions of seniors," said Mark McClellan, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Not every Medicare beneficiary qualifies for the new benefit - only those who have an illness caused by tobacco use or complicated by tobacco use.

Medicare officials said Tuesday they did not have an estimate of how much the new program would cost or how many people would be eligible for it. It covers only counseling sessions, not the cost of nicotine patches and gum or products pitched to help smokers quit. About 300,000 senior citizens die annually from smoking-related illnesses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Medicare operated a pilot program for smoking cessation in seven states between November 2002 and December 2004. The official who oversaw it, Jim Coan, said the government paid about $32 for each counseling session, which usually lasted from three to 10 minutes. The maximum amount of claims that could be submitted per participant was four per year.

Coan did not have cost estimates for the program. He said about 7,500 people participated, far short of the goal that had been set for the program.

The new nationwide benefit covers only those with smoking-related illnesses or complications. In the pilot program, any Medicare beneficiary living in the seven states - Alabama, Florida, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma and Wyoming - could participate.

Dr. Ronald Sturm, a senior economist with the RAND Institute, a nonprofit research group, said Medicare's decision to limit the annual benefit to two cessation attempts per year - each including a maximum of four counseling sessions - would limit the program's costs.

Still, elderly people who have smoked throughout much of their life aren't typically the best candidates to quit smoking - unless they are facing a life-threatening scenario.

"Will they quit smoking in their last few years? Not likely," Sturm said. "It's not going to change much. It's not going to cost much."

Officials at the American Medical Association applauded the government's move. They said seniors actually have a better chance of successfully quitting smoking than do people in other age categories.

"Studies have shown that seniors who try to quit smoking are 50 percent more likely to succeed than all other age groups, and seniors who quit can reduce their risk of death from heart disease to that of nonsmokers within two to three years after quitting," said Dr. Ronald Davis, an AMA trustee.

Update 2:

Medicare Offers Counseling to Help Smokers Quit

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - 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.

Sorry, both of this news come from State... So how about our MOH's besides just on million RM Tak Nak! fancy unefective and wasting campaign.