How Medicaid and Other Public Policies Affect Use of Tobacco Cessation Therapy, United States, 2010–2014

Details

• Journal Article:
  Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD)
• Personal Author:
  Ku, Leighton ; Brantley, Erin ; Bysshe, Tyler ; Steinmetz, Erika ; Bruen, Brian K.
• Description:
  Introduction
  
  State Medicaid programs can cover tobacco cessation therapies for millions of low-income smokers in the United States, but use of this benefit is low and varies widely by state. This article assesses the effects of changes in Medicaid benefit policies, general tobacco policies, smoking norms, and public health programs on the use of cessation therapy among Medicaid smokers.
  
  Methods
  
  We used longitudinal panel analysis, using 2-way fixed effects models, to examine the effects of changes in state policies and characteristics on state-level use of Medicaid tobacco cessation medications from 2010 through 2014.
  
  Results
  
  Medicaid policies that require patients to obtain counseling to get medications reduced the use of cessation medications by approximately one-quarter to one-third; states that cover all types of cessation medications increased usage by approximately one-quarter to one-third. Non-Medicaid policies did not have significant effects on use levels.
  
  Conclusions
  
  States could increase efforts to quit by developing more comprehensive coverage and reducing barriers to coverage. Reductions in barriers could bolster smoking cessation rates, and the costs would be small compared with the costs of treating smoking-related diseases. Innovative initiatives to help smokers quit could improve health and reduce health care costs.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Counseling Health Services Accessibility Humans Insurance Coverage Medicaid Public Health Public Policy Regression Analysis Smoking Tobacco Use Cessation
• Source:
  Prev Chronic Dis. 13.
• DOI:
  http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd13.160234
• ISSN:
  1545-1151
• Pubmed ID:
  27788063
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC5084624
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  R15 CA176600/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Volume:
  13
• Collection(s):
  Preventing Chronic Disease
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:5916710ded6a31686f04e6e3781832e0f61ee78fb6f47cada84aaf057f019a0ebe207dbd7702c83c6c4aa19ccf4dbbdecefeb26aa686415f599601c256671e9c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/42875/cdc_42875_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 303.13 KB ]