(Access to Coverage of Tobacco Treatment In Our Nation)
Partnership for Prevention
Shaping Policies | Improving Health
- Home
- Monthly Briefing
- Partnership Messages
Partnership Message Archive
May 27, 2011
Letter from Diane Canova
Partnership for Prevention would like to thank you for being a part of the ActionToQuit Network and loyal readers of the ActionToQuit Monthly Newsletter. Because our weekly listserv has seen significant growth – we now have 770 members – Partnership decided to discontinue the newsletter and focus on the listserv as our primary mode of communication to tobacco control leaders and advocates.
So, this doesn’t mean goodbye. If you haven’t already, please – Join the ActionToQuit Listserv! By subscribing to the listserv, you can join the conversation about tobacco control issues with advocates across the country, receive timely updates, and stay informed of the latest tobacco control information.
To close out our interview series with the ActionToQuit grantees, please enjoy the interview with Michigan. We look forward to having you as members of the listserv!
April 26, 2011
Letter from Diane Canova
Dear Partners,
Workplace policy is an important tool in improving public health. In this period of austerity in government budgets, the workplace has become a more significant locus of policy to help employees improve and maintain their health. Tobacco free policies and support for tobacco use treatment not only improve employee health, but also are highly cost-effective. Tobacco use has both direct and indirect costs. Smoking-related illnesses lead to substantial health care costs and tobacco use decreases employee productivity. Individuals who quit using tobacco experience significant health benefits and the organizations they work for yield positive returns.
March 28, 2011
Letter from Diane Canova
Dear Partners,
April is National Cancer Control Month, as it has been every year since 1938. As President Obama said in the proclamation last year, “With simple, everyday activities, we all can take steps to protect ourselves and our loved ones from cancer.” Quitting smoking is one of those steps.
An important message about smoking cessation is that it is never too late to quit. People who stop and remain nonsmokers for at least 10 to 20 years can cut their risk of developing lung cancer in half. Those who quit smoking in their 60s, 70s, and even 80s benefit by reducing their risk of dying from a heart attack or from developing lung or head and neck cancer.
Often overlooked in the consideration of quitting smoking is the benefit of quitting to people already diagnosed with cancer. PDQ, the National Cancer Institute's (NCI's) comprehensive cancer information database, has information on the topic of Smoking Cessation and Continued Risk in Cancer Patients.
February 28, 2011
Letter from Diane Canova
Dear Partners,
As budget battles are raging in Washington and in state capitals around the country, I believe that it is time for cessation and other tobacco control advocates to consider how to succeed in an era of declining resources. We need to seek out and provide support for the lowest cost evidence-based activities to keep our momentum going.
At this writing, the good news is that the Obama Administration has proposed an increase in the 2012 budget for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Office on Smoking and Health. The budget request is for $186 million for Tobacco, including $79 million from the Affordable Care Act Prevention and Public Health Fund. This amount is an increase of $61 million from the 2010 level. In addition to continuing the National Tobacco Prevention and Control (NTPC) program, the budget is intended to “implement a national tobacco media campaign on the health effects of tobacco use to further prevent youth from starting to use tobacco and motivate adult and young adult tobacco users to quit. This campaign will build public support for proven, population-based policies, and reinforce messages delivered by state and community media campaigns.”
January 27, 2011
Letter from Diane Canova
Dear Partners,
In preparation for our new webinar on the Role of Hospitals in Tobacco Cessation, I wanted to provide an update on the Joint Commission cessation project undertaken with support from Partnership for Prevention. The aim is to develop a set of performance measures to address the assessment and treatment of tobacco use for all hospitalized patients. As described in the August newsletter, the Joint Commission is considering a proposed set of tobacco cessation quality measures that would be applicable to all hospitalized patients. The proposed measures would target all patients, 18 years of age or older, with a history of use of tobacco products within the past 30 days prior to hospital arrival. If adopted, any hospital selecting the measure set will be required to identify all patients who use tobacco products and offer them counseling and FDA-approved medications during the hospital stay, refer the patients to outpatient counseling along with a prescription for FDA-approved medications at discharge, and follow-up with the patient within 30 days of discharge to determine tobacco use status.
January 1, 2011
Letter from Diane Canova
Dear Partners:
The New Year always brings resolutions from smokers wanting to quit. The question for us at ActionToQuit is, “Will the resources be there to help these people at the time when they are most motivated?” The six ActionToQuit grantees are working very hard to help provide a positive answer to that question.
The grantees have all held their summits and are preparing their plans for the new year based on the discussions at the summits. Each of the summits had a good turnout and attracted important stakeholders. It was heartening to us at ActionToQuit to see so many people in the states willing to talk about cessation and take action to increase the number of people with access to services, and ultimately improving their health by quitting.
Without intending to shortchange the many ideas and proposals that were part of the summits and will be incorporated in their plans, I would like to point to a few highlights that came from the organizational representatives, leaders and advocates discussions:
November 28, 2010
Letter from Diane Canova
Dear Partners:
As we approach the end of the year, many plans are being prepared to strengthen and advance tobacco control. Closest to home are the state action plans coming from the summits held by the six ActionToQuit grantees. As the plans are published, they will be described in this newsletter and at www.actiontoquit.org. A plan will be forthcoming from the Multi State Collaborative following the discussions and recommendations developed at their conference that occurred in late October. This information will also be reported in this newsletter and published on the Multi State Collaborative website. During the conference the participants discussed current opportunities and challenges to improve cessation benefit coverage and promote systems changes to address tobacco use, identified strategies and new collaborations to promote policy and sustainable systems in healthcare, and exchanged data and best practices.
October 27, 2010
Letter from Diane Canova
Dear Partners:
GASO, as the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout is known by its friends, is coming up on November 18. This is a day when smokers are challenged to quit smoking for one day and make a plan to quit permanently. GASO supporters hope that one day free from smoking will turn into long term abstinence.
The first national Great American Smokeout was held in 1977. It grew out of several local efforts in the 1970’s. A high school guidance counselor in Massachusetts, disturbed by the litter caused by discarded cigarette butts, observed that the money spent on those cigarettes could be better spent. Soon he developed a plan to ask the people in his town to give up smoking for a day and donate the money to a college scholarship fund. This became an annual event, with support from the local American Cancer Society (ACS). A few years later, a newspaper editor in Minnesota started D-Day, which stood for “Don't Smoke Day”. In 1976, the California Division of the ACS convinced one million smokers in that state to give up smoking for one day. The following year, the national ACS started the first annual Great American Smokeout across the country.
September 27, 2010
Letter from Diane Canova
Dear Partners:
Older smokers received some good news in late August when Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced that Medicare would start covering evidence-based tobacco cessation counseling for all smokers, regardless of whether they have a tobacco-related disease. Medicare beneficiaries will now be provided coverage for two individual tobacco cessation counseling attempts each year, with a total of eight counseling sessions per Medicare patient each year.
August 27, 2010
Letter from Diane Canova
Dear Partners:
In late July, Partnership for Prevention’s ActionToQuit initiative was pleased to release its new guide, Save Lives and Money – Help People on Medicaid Quit Tobacco. The guide, prepared in collaboration with the American Lung Association, was released at the National Conference of State Legislators meeting in Louisville, Kentucky. You can access the guide here.
During the NCSL meeting, the Health Committee, at the initiation of Partnership for Prevention, hosted a special tobacco cessation briefing for state legislators and their staff members from across the country. The briefing focused on the impact the Massachusetts Medicaid program experienced when it offered and promoted a comprehensive tobacco cessation benefit. Although states have achieved many tobacco control policy advances in smoke free air laws and increased tobacco taxes, policies related to cessation have often lagged behind. The briefing on Massachusetts’ success combined with the release of the guide was intended to encourage other states to follow Massachusetts’ example.
In The News RSS
- May 21, 2012
Study Says Children Exposed to Tobacco Smoke Face Long-Term Respiratory Problems
Read the full story - May 21, 2012
Lung Cancer Screening Guidelines Updated
Read the full story - May 18, 2012
The Book Big Tobacco Doesn’t Want You to Read
Read the full story - May 18, 2012
Dramatic New Findings Support Menthol As A Starter Tobacco Product For Youth
Read the full story
Stay Informed RSS
Sign up to automatically be informed of each monthly briefing as soon as it is released.
Key Dates RSS
- Subscribe to the RSS feed to get notification of key dates.
All Content © ActionToQuit. All Rights Reserved