Tobacco Cessation Counseling Doesn’t Have To Be Lengthy or Intimidating

Did you know that tobacco cessation counseling is a covered Medicare service?

Brief tobacco counseling provides substantial health benefits while producing cost savings. Busy, practicing health care providers may not have time for lengthy counseling sessions on tobacco cessation. However, brief cessation advice, as short as three minutes, has proven effective in helping users to quit.

The 5As (Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, Arrange) summarize all the activities that a primary care provider can do to help a tobacco user in a primary care setting. The major steps to intervention are the "5 As."

If time is limited, the 2As and R (Ask, Advise and Refer) can also be effective. In this intervention, the health provider can refer a tobacco user to a quit line, cessation specialist, or other resource for quit plan development. View Clinical Guidelines and Recommendations Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence for more details.

A team approach is the best way to treat tobacco use and dependence. Integrating treatment into the routine clinical workflow and engaging the entire healthcare team in treatment delivery can make a difference.

For more information on these and other similar approaches, view the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention YouTube video Brief Tobacco Cessation Interventions.

Not sure what to document? View our Tobacco Counseling Documentation page for the information you need.

Recommended Resources

• Free telephone-based state tobacco quit lines: 1-800-QUIT-NOW
• The National Cancer Institute’s website: smokefree.gov
• The National Cancer Institute’s text-messaging quit smoking program: SmokefreeTXT; Text QUIT to 47848
• Appropriate community-based or local cessation resources (e.g., classes, support groups)

Providing cessation treatment is reimbursable and can help meet quality measures.

Counseling to Prevent Tobacco Use Webinars

To raise awareness and increase utilization of tobacco use counseling, we focus on the effects of nicotine dependence including affected health consequences during this webinar. Medicare coverage, coding, billing and documentation guidelines for tobacco use counseling for outpatient and hospitalized beneficiaries is also covered.

National Government Services and the CMS resources will be provided, and a brief question and answer period is offered at the end of each session.

Note: All webinars are held in eastern time.

For more information about tobacco cessation, tools and resources, visit Tobacco Cessation.

Thank you for being a valued Medicare Provider.

Posted 7/29/2025