November 21st is The Great American Smokeout

You Can Help Your Patients Quit Smoking

Smoking is one of the leading causes of heart disease and stroke. At least 70% of cigarette smokers see a clinician annually and many want to quit.

Each year, the Great American Smokeout is observed on the third Thursday in November. On this day, initiated by the American Cancer Society, smokers are encouraged to quit for one day in the hopes that they will quit for a lifetime.

• Millions of smokers around the country have used the Smokeout as motivation to quit.
• The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and National Government Services is encouraging Medicare beneficiaries to set a goal of quitting during this year’s Great American Smokeout. Healthcare providers in a variety of settings play a critical role in helping people quit using tobacco. Even brief advice from health care providers can make it much more likely patients will try to quit and ultimately succeed.
• Statistics show that tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States. Cigarette smoking kills more than 480,000 Americans each year. Many people who use tobacco want to quit.

In partnership with CMS, NGS desired outcome is to increase the utilization of tobacco cessation counseling to improve health outcomes and reduce costs for Medicare beneficiaries and the Medicare Program.

Throughout November and beyond, please share tobacco cessation resources to empower people to quit. We invite you to join us for our monthly webinar series on Medicare’s preventative services, "Counseling to Prevent Tobacco Use".

During these webinars, we focus on Medicare coverage, coding, billing and documentation guidelines for tobacco use counseling for outpatient and hospitalized beneficiaries.

Visit our NGS Events Page or register below for the November session. You may attend as many sessions as you want.

All webinars are listed in eastern time.

Counseling to Prevent Tobacco Use

Posted 11/14/2024