Medicare Launching Stop-Smoking Program for Seniors

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26, 2002 -- The message to seniors is: Uncle Sam wants you to stop smoking.

To help seniors give up what for most is a bad habit of many decades standing, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has announced the launch of a pilot program in seven states to study the best way to help older Medicare beneficiaries quit smoking.

"Smoking is the single most preventable cause of disease and death in the United States and poses a significant risk to older Americans," HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said.

"It is never too late to quit smoking, even if you have smoked heavily for 30 years or more. In fact, older adults have proven to be more successful at quitting smoking than younger people."

The Medicare Stop Smoking Program will be conducted in Alabama, Florida, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma and Wyoming. The pilot program will test smoking cessation strategies with seniors. The strategies will be tested in various combinations, including counseling in person or over the phone, nicotine patches, a prescription smoking cessation drug, and educational materials. All of these services have been demonstrated to help smokers quit. The study will seek to determine which are the most effective for seniors.

Beneficiaries who enroll in the study will receive free smoking cessation therapy, which may range from physician counseling to drugs to help them quit. As a preventive measure, smoking cessation therapy is normally not covered by Medicare, but is covered for those enrolled in this study.

In these states, senior Medicare beneficiaries who smoke and want to quit will be encouraged to call a toll-free telephone number to find out if they are eligible for the study. Only people 65 and older enrolled in fee-for-service Medicare Part B in the seven states are eligible to participate. The number is 1-866-65BEGIN (1-866-652-3446).