FRANKFORT Providers play a critical role in helping Kentuckians quit tobacco products. That’s why the Kentucky Department for Public Health has released new tools providers can use to support patients on their quit journey. QuitLogix Education now offers on-demand trainings at no cost to providers to help them expand their tobacco-cessation knowledge base while earning CME, CNE, or CPE credits.
The training is meant for healthcare providers and social service agencies who want to help care for their patients during their tobacco dependence journey. Featured QuitLogix Education courses include:
- Medicaid and Quit Now Kentucky benefits for tobacco cessation
- Best practices for tobacco cessation using medication and behavioral support
- Special quitline programs for tobacco cessation
- Connecting the harms of tobacco use to chronic health conditions
- Tobacco cessation for behavioral health populations
- Vaping and e-cigarettes: What are they and how do they harm?
- Conversations for screening, responding to, and preventing vaping
Modules range from 15 to 30 minutes, with stop-and-play functionality to fit into busy clinic schedules. Each module contains a short video with interactive features that help you immediately integrate content into practice. These modules include an excellent introduction to Quit Now Kentucky, the state’s tobacco quitline and give providers the most up-to-date information on how their patients can get free counseling and which health insurance providers cover cessation medications. Those who are interested can review a summary of each module at quitlogixeducation.org/kentucky/.
The QuitLogix Education modules were designed by respiratory hospital National Jewish Health, which also operates Quit Now Kentucky. Quit Now Kentucky is available 24/7 at no cost to Kentucky residents of all ages. In addition to coaching, participants can receive free nicotine replacement therapy if they are uninsured, enrolled in Medicare or report a behavioral health diagnosis such as depression, PTSD, schizophrenia, or anxiety. Kentucky law requires all commercial and public health insurance providers to cover nicotine replacement therapy with no copay. As Medicare is a federal program, this law does not apply to Medicare’s coverage policies.
According to the 2020 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on smoking cessation, a majority of cigarette smokers attempt to quit each year, but fewer than one in three use cessation medications or behavioral counseling to support their quit attempts. Medication and counseling are the two critical factors for success in quitting smoking. Cessation medication can more than double the chance of success and getting cessation counseling can do the same.
Quit Now Kentucky participants under the age of eighteen are directed to My Life, My Quit, which is staffed by coaches who are not only trained in nicotine addiction but also in child psychology. My Life, My Quit allows youth to receive customized help quitting vaping through text messages or online chat. Both Quit Now Kentucky and My Life, My Quit can be incorporated into electronic medical records systems to allow providers to refer patients to the quitline directly.
Quitting is “the single most important step a smoker can take to improve the length and quality of their life,” according to the U.S. Surgeon General. The Surgeon General also concluded in 2020 that smoking cessation reduces the risk for all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, adverse reproductive health outcomes and 12 types of cancer. Although considerable progress has been made in the U.S. in reducing smoking over the past half century, there is still work to be done.
While Kentucky has one of the highest smoking rates in the nation, the good news is that nearly nine in ten (88%) of Kentucky adults who smoke said they wanted to quit, according to the 2021 Kentucky Behavioral Risk Factor Survey. Kentucky providers play an important role in encouraging their patients to quit. When patients hear from their provider not just ‘smoking is bad for you,’ but also ‘I believe you can quit and I want to show you these things that can help,’ it can make all the difference in their motivation to seek help quitting.
National Jewish Health is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians and by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education as a provider of continuing pharmacy education. Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number 12724.
If you have questions about the accreditation of this activity, please contact proed@njhealth.org or 303.398.1000. For more information about tobacco cessation or prevention resources in Kentucky, contact the Kentucky Tobacco Prevention & Cessation Program at the Kentucky Department for Public Health at Ky.TobaccoFree@ky.gov.