This electronic collection of articles, webinars, documents and links includes materials developed by NAQC and states involved in the Cost Sharing Initiative. Feel free to adapt the materials for use in your state.

To contribute a resource or if you have any questions regarding the materials listed, please contact NAQC at naqc@naquitline.org.

Phase I: Resources

Recommended Reading

• American Lung Association Orientation Videos on Cessation Coverage and Health Systems Change
• NAQC Quitline Sustainability and Cost-Sharing Orientation Video Series
  Session One: Overview of Quitline Cost-Sharing Partnerships
  Session Two: Tutorial for the State Cessation Environmental Assessment Worksheet
  Session Three: Options for Quitline Partnerships with Medicaid
  
• NAQC Workshop: Public Private Partnerships for Quitline Sustainability
• CDC Tutorial on the Tobacco Cessation Change Package

Recommended Reading

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Tobacco Cessation Change Package. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 2019.
• A Practical Guide to Working with Health-Care Systems on Tobacco-Use Treatment, CDC, 2006. This resource includes quitlines as fully integrated and covered treatments. 
• Tobacco Cessation Policies (ALA).
• Fast Facts – Health Plan Differences: Fully-Insured vs. Self-Insured (2009).
• North American Quitline Consortium (2015). Guide for Implementing eReferral Using Certified EHRs. (R. Daigh, MBA). Phoenix, AZ.

Phase II: Resources

• MAKING THE CASE-Public and Private Insurers Covering Costs of Quitline Services: Service Delivery Models and Payment Mechanisms

• Florida Quitline Evaluation Ad Hoc Report: Quitline Cost Sharing Models
• Environmental Analysis: Strategies for Engaging Health Plans with the Utah Tobacco Quit Line
• Power Point Presentation for Stakeholders: " Public-Private Partnerships: Sustaining and Expanding Access to Quitlines”
• Colorado Letters to Employers and Health Plans (surveying, meetings, limiting quitline services)
  
• North Carolina Collaborative Summit: Expanding Comprehensive Coverage for Tobacco Cessation to Ensure Access to Evidence-Based Treatment
  o   Cessation Summit Invite 
  o   Agenda
  o   Tobacco Cessation Coverage in North Carolina (Power Point Presentation) - Dr. Ruth Petersen, Chief, Chronic Disease and Injury Section, NC Division of Public Health
  o   Setting Our Compass (Power Point Presentation) - Sally Herndon, Branch Head, Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch, Chronic Disease and Injury Section, NC Division of Public Health
  o   Public-Private Partnerships: Sustaining and Expanding Access to Quitlines (Power point presentation) - Deb Osborne, NAQC Public-Private Partnership Initiative 
  o   North Carolina: Tobacco Collaboration Summit –  Success Story 
  

Phase III: Resources

• Oregon Cessation Benefit (Summary)
• Oregon Cessation Benefit (Full Report)
• Recommended Summary Plan Description Language for Insured Employers - Baseline Tobacco Cessation Covered Benefits
• Recommended Summary Plan Description Language for Self-Funded Employers - Baseline Tobacco Cessation Covered Benefits
• Colorado Tobacco Cessation Partnership Plan
• How Tobacco Hurts an Employer’s Bottom Line
• State of Colorado Resource Book: Tobacco Cessation Coverage for Self-Insured Employees
• Recommended Tobacco Coverage Questions for the State of Colorado Health Insurance Plan RFP
• DOI Letter Template - Letter to State’s Department of Insurance 
• DOI Bulletin – Illinois
  
• DOI Letter – Utah
• DOI Alert  - Colorado Consumer
  
• Rhode Island Tobacco Cessation Report – 618 Project
• Mississippi Medicaid Cessation Coverage Fact Sheet
• North Carolina Quitline Partnership Plan 2016
  

Case Study Series: Development of Medicaid Cost-sharing Partnerships

To ensure Medicaid enrollees have access to comprehensive tobacco cessation benefits, including telephone counseling, states have employed various approaches to collaborating with their state Medicaid agency.  Approaches used by Maryland, North Carolina and South Carolina to develop cost-sharing partnerships with Medicaid are highlighted in individual state case studies. 

Case Studies:
Maryland Case Study
North Carolina Case Study
South Carolina Case Study

 

The most recent case studies (from 2024), with the addition of New Hampshire and Michigan, highlight the changing landscape and lessons learned within each state to provide others with reflections on overcoming challenges and more smoothly implementing partnerships with Medicaid.

Case Study Series: Changing Quitline Eligibility Criteria
CDC recommends that states revisit their quitline eligibility criteria and service offerings in light of the ACA requirement that health insurance plans cover cessation treatment for their members.  Consistent with CDC Best Practices, North Carolina, South Carolina and Utah changed eligibility criteria to ensure more robust quitline services are available to populations with little or no access to other cessation treatment services.

Case Studies:
North Carolina Case Study
South Carolina Case Study
Utah Case Study

Cessation Coverage Legislation
Kentucky Cessation Coverage Legislation

Employer Partnerships
“A Guide for Working with Employers to Provide Tobacco Cessation Coverage and Purchase Quitline Services” provides information and easy-to-access resources to state health departments and their partners who are interested in improving cessation coverage and utilization of the quitlines among employers in their states.  This guide includes an overview of the types of employers and other groups who purchase health benefits for employees and outlines the key processes that need to occur to successfully build cost-sharing partnerships with employers to improve cessation coverage and utilization of quitlines for treatment services.

NAQC Employer ROI and Educational Resource Templates
As a major purchaser of health insurance plans, employers determine whether their employees have access to tobacco cessation treatment benefits. To assist states in educating employers on the benefits of providing cessation treatment coverage, NAQC has developed a power point presentation and a number of fact sheets in a template format. The template allows states to tailor the fact sheet with the state’s logo, quitline information and other state specific information.

• Calculating the Return on Investment: Employee Tobacco Cessation Coverage Utilizing Telephonic Counseling and Medication
  
• Employee Smoking Costs Employers! Providing Cessation Treatment Saves Money!
  
• Tobacco Cessation Treatment – Saving Money and Improving Employee Health
  

State Employer Educational Materials

• Power Point Template - “Partnering to Improve Tobacco Cessation Coverage in “X” State.” To assist states in “making the case” to the state benefit’s director/committee for tobacco coverage for state employees via quitline services, NAQC developed a power point template.  The template format allows states to customize the presentation with state specific information.

Florida Employer Education Materials

• Employer Cessation Toolkit -3 Ways to Quit
• Employer Cessation – Benefits to Quit
• Employer Cessation Brochure

Quitline/ROI Fact Sheets /Power Point Presentations
NAQC and states participating in the NAQC Public-Private Partnership Initiative have developed quitline and ROI educational materials and power point presentations to promote the cost-effectiveness of  tobacco cessation treatment to employers and insurers.

Quitline Fact Sheet:  Staying Competitive in the Marketplace: Helping Employees Become Tobacco Free   
             Arizona

• Helping Tobacco Users Quit is Smart Business
• Insurance Companies Covering Tobacco Cessation is Smart Business 
• Insurer power point: ASHline Blue Cross/Blue Shield Presentation

              Utah

• Tobacco Cessation Return on Investment - UTAH Overview

              North Carolina

• Tobacco QuitlineNC Return on Investment for State Health Plan for Teachers and State Employees
  

            Kentucky

• Kentucky Quitline ROI Brief

Return on Investments - Research Articles and Resources

             Articles

• The Return on Investment of a Medicaid Tobacco Cessation Program in Massachusetts (MA)
• Saving Money - The Massachusetts Tobacco Cessation Medicaid Benefit
• Smoking-attributable Medical Expenditures by Age, Sex, and Smoking Status Estimated Using a Relative Risk Approach
• Making the Case for Medicaid Funding of Smoking Cessation Treatment: An Application of State-Level Health Care Savings
• Healthcare Costs Around the Time of Smoking Cessation

Medicaid Tobacco Cessation Coverage Fact Sheets and Guidance Documents

Cost-Sharing Brief - Medicaid Reimbursement for Quitline Pharmacy Products
Purpose: This brief identifies current processes, barriers, and breakthroughs, and “ideal” processes that may be considered when state quitline funders and service providers seek Medicaid reimbursement for pharmacotherapy. You can also review a NAQC webinar hosted on the same topic here. 

Rhode Island Medicaid Insurance Tobacco Cessation Benefits
Purpose: Provides health care providers and members cessation coverage information specific to the individual’s MCO or FFS plan and provides 5 A’s counseling information and provider billing codes.

Kentucky Medicaid and MCO Tobacco Cessation Benefits
Purpose: Provides providers and members cessation coverage information by the individual’s MCO or FFS plan and provides 3 A’s counseling information and provider billing codes for providers.

 

New Hampshire MCO Guidance Document
Purpose:  This document clarifies MCO cessation coverage requirements per their Medicaid contractual agreement. 

Commercial Health Plan Cessation Benefits Fact Sheet

Rhode Island Commercial Health Insurance Tobacco Cessation Benefits
Purpose: Provides providers and members cessation coverage information by the individual’s health plan and provides 5 A’s counseling information and provider billing codes.

Archived Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Discussion Group Calls and Webinars  

Please click here to view the archive.