News Briefs
CMS: Medicare to pay for seniors’ smoking cessation counseling
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it will cover smoking and tobacco cessation counseling to help seniors give up their tobacco habit. "Covering smoking and tobacco use cessation counseling for seniors has great potential to save and improve lives for millions of seniors," said CMS administrator Mark B. McClellan, MD, PhD. "This is another step in turning Medicare into a prevention-oriented health program."
The coverage decision, which was proposed for public comment in December, involves Medicare beneficiaries who have an illness caused or complicated by tobacco use, including heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, lung disease, weak bones, blood clots, and cataracts — the diseases that account for the bulk of Medicare spending today. It also applies to beneficiaries who take any of the many medications whose effectiveness is complicated by tobacco use — including insulin and medicines for high blood pressure, blood clots, and depression.
Public comments generally supported the approach that CMS proposed, although some commenters preferred broader coverage of all tobacco users. CMS modified the proposal in response to comments by removing a requirement that providers have uniform training in smoking and tobacco-use cessation counseling, since no nationally accepted standards exist. When standards do become available, CMS plans to consider whether to add those requirements to its coverage policy.
The new coverage policy is effective immediately. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated that almost 10% of Americans ages 65 and older smoke cigarettes. About 440,000 people die annually from smoking related disease, with 300,000 of those deaths in those 65 and older. CDC estimated in 2002 that 57 % of smokers age 65 and older report a desire to quit. Currently, about 10% of elderly smokers quit each year, with 1% relapsing. CMS reports that smoking accounts for roughly 10% of the total costs of Medicare — more than $20 billion in 1997 alone.
The final Medicare coverage decision is available on CMS’ web site at www.cms.gov/coverage/.
CDC plans agencywide research agenda
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will develop an agencywide research agenda to target national health problems such as infectious disease, birth defects and obesity, and provide evidence to improve public health interventions to reduce risk factors associated with the leading causes of death and illness, the agency announced today. It said the agenda will directly influence the selection and implementation of community and national programs that protect the health of children, adolescents, adults, and the public from terrorism, infectious, occupational and environmental threats. The agency will sponsor four public meetings to obtain public input on the agenda.
Interested people can register comments for the meetings on-line at www.maximumtechnology.com/cdcreg.htm.
California awards $13 million for nurse training programs
California has awarded $13 million in grants to support initiatives to train current and future workers for high-demand nursing positions. "Every effort must be made to help our hospitals and health care providers fill the nursing positions they need to deliver safe, quality patient care," said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
California hospitals have about 14,000 vacant registered nurse positions and need an additional 4,000 nurses under the state’s current nurse-to-patient staffing regulations. Eighteen organizations from throughout the state were selected for funding. Each recipient was awarded up to $800,000. The 18 nursing programs are each designed to prepare California’s current and future work force for high-demand nursing positions ranging from licensed vocational nurses to RNs.
Examples of the projects include: increasing capacity in nursing education programs; creating awareness and interest among youth for careers in the health care industry; and training workers for nursing professions in rural areas that tend to serve the state’s most vulnerable populations and experience more severe shortages.
California Hospital Association president Duane Dauner said, "With a majority of California’s hospitals operating in the red and with nine hospital closures last year alone, the governor’s proactive and results-oriented solution is an important step to make sure that we train enough nurses to keep hospitals open."
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced it will cover smoking and tobacco cessation counseling to help seniors give up their tobacco habit.
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