A staggering amount of research shows the detrimental effects smoking can have on a person’s health, and public service announcements abound on this topic. Some providers may not know that Medicare is also on this bandwagon and pays for PCPs to counsel their smoker patients to quit. During the public health emergency, counseling can be delivered by telehealth, telephone only.
Two counseling attempts per year are covered so providers can screen patients for continued smoking, and if appropriate, utilize the 5As approach to counsel them on quitting. Up to four sessions are allowed for each smoking cessation attempt, which means that PCPs can deliver up to eight sessions in a year.
As a reminder, the 5As is a behavioral counseling intervention that has been adopted by the USPSTF and includes: Assessing, Advising, Agreeing, Assisting and Arranging. What derails some cessation counseling efforts is not spending enough time building agreement before moving to assisting, such as recommending medications, etc.
Feel free to request our free bulletin on billing this service and be sure to check with commercial payors to see if they also cover counseling for smoking cessation.