Tobacco users in the state’s largest Medicaid managed care plan and two commercial health plans locally are eligible for eight weeks of free nicotine patches, the Ohio Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation will announce today in Columbus and at Upper Valley Medical Center near Troy.
The foundation plans to expand the program this year to subsidize any Ohio smoker or tobacco chewer’s use of the patch to quit smoking, regardless of insurance affiliation.
For now, about 182,000 Dayton-area residents are enrolled in the participating insurers: Care-Source, Medical Mutual of Ohio, Paramount Care and Summit Insurance, which is owned by the parent company of Upper Valley Medical Center.
The first step for enrollment is to register with the Ohio Tobacco Quit Line, a free telephone counseling service at (800) QUITNOW or (800) 784-8669.
For callers in the four participating health plans, the counselor will order a four-week supply of Nicoderm patches by mail. Callers who continue counseling can receive a four-week refill.
The patches do not require a doctor’s prescription, but enrollees must be at least 18.
The foundation and the insurance company will equally split the patches’ estimated $200 cost for eight weeks in an arrangement it believes is the first in the country.
The foundation is funded by the master settlement between tobacco companies and 46 states.
“This is an investment that pays off for us,” said Summit president and CEO Ron Musilli. His company, with most of its 24,000 enrollees in small businesses, has included free coverage of the prescription antidepressant Zyban for smoking cessation since 1999.
Smoking-cessation treatments double the rate of success for those trying to quit, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC recommends generous insurance coverage of counseling, prescription and nonprescription drugs for at least two attempts to quit smoking each year because first attempts rarely succeed.
“Tobacco cessation is more cost-effective than other common and covered disease prevention interventions, such as the treatment of hypertension and high blood cholesterol,” says the CDC’s report, last updated on April 25, yet only 24 percent of U.S. employers offer any smoking cessation coverage.
The foundation reports a sixmonth success rate of 25.6 percent for the Ohio quit line, about five times the success rate of people trying to quit without help. It has signed up more than 3,000 callers per month since its statewide launch last September.
“Having worked with (quitting smokers) for six years, we know how having somebody that talks to you and walks you through the process gives you a much greater chance of quitting,” Musilli said. When he approached the foundation with the idea of adding medication to its program, he said executive director Mike Renner was enthusiastic.
Tobacco use costs Ohio $4.14 billion a year in workers’ productivity and $3.41 billion in health care costs, Renner said. The state and federal Medicaid tab is $1.11 billion.
“Studies have revealed that the Miami Valley is plagued by a higher-than-average rate of heart disease, cancer, stroke and chronic lung disease,” Musilli said, “all of which could be drastically reduced if people would simply stop smoking and make other simple adjustments in their daily habits.”
Contact Kevin Lamb at 225-2129.
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