Impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) on Tobacco Cessation

As preventive healthcare impacts resulting from the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) continue to take effect, progress made in the field of tobacco cessation is now becoming evident. ACA benefits to tobacco cessation efforts represent great opportunities for the U.S. healthcare network to offer cessation services to millions of smokers. Through reform calling for tobacco addiction screening and medication coverage under Medicare, Medicaid, employer-sponsored insurance, and newly instated State Health Insurance Exchanges, the ACA is paving the way towards a nationwide effort on tobacco prevention and treatment.

Despite the promise of more accessible tobacco cessation opportunities, a lack of specificity in determining what falls under comprehensive tobacco cessation services allows for multiple standards of care. Preliminary studies have already reported a high degree of variation among health plans offered by states and individual insurers. Experts concur that unless the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) specifies what kinds of tobacco cessation services should be covered, the opportunity to establish uniform, high-quality, and accessible tobacco cessation services will be lost.

Notwithstanding the present and future challenges to ACA tobacco cessation efforts, the law has set in motion significant transformation of the U.S. healthcare system, prompting states and corporations (i.e., CVS Caremark) to join the tobacco reform campaign. This presentation reports the most recent information on implications for tobacco cessation coverage under ACA guidelines, as obtained from extensive literature review of federal, state, and institutional reports, as well as reporting from various news channels, national conferences, and other subject matter experts.