 Pharmacists are an essential resources for helping people quit tobacco use.
Did you know? Pharmacists can easily connect people who use tobacco to the help that they need to quit by using their existing authority to write prescriptions for over-the-counter tobacco cessation medications for patients that are covered by Medicaid. Your active participation in these initiatives is central to its success and will help save lives and reduce tobacco-related disease and fatalities. Information about this authority can be found on the Minnesota Department of Human Services website.
Tobacco use remains the number one preventable cause of death and disease in Minnesota with a price tag of over $3 billion in excess health care costs annually. To better address the health inequities of Medicaid beneficiaries, who smoke at twice the rate of the general population, MDH launched a Medicaid pharmacy initiative to encourage Medical Assistance beneficiaries to go to their pharmacists for a prescription for over-the-counter (OTC) tobacco cessation Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) medications including patches, gum, and lozenges. Pharmacists are allowed to write prescriptions for over-the-counter drugs for the purpose of billing Medicaid.
The Minnesota Board of Pharmacy supports this effort.
More information on access to Medicaid tobacco cessation medication can be found at http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/hpcd/tpc/quit.html.
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