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.

Free technical assistance is available for healthcare systems. The University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Center for Tobacco Treatment Research and Training provides free technical assistance and training to Massachusetts health systems to meet Meaningful Use requirements, Patient-Centered Medical Home requirements, and/or Joint Commission standards. Assistance is also available for quality improvement efforts of existing tobacco intervention programs. Recent research shows that a comprehensive tobacco cessation program can assist hospitals in preventing readmissions.*

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

*1 Rigotti NA, Clair C, Munafo MR, Stead L. Cochrane Library 2012, September, 2012