Tobacco Cessation Updates

Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) Access

• NEW-NRT for providers serving the uninsured: Alliance Health has partnered with NC MedAssist to provide NRT to this population. You can view more information here. To order, visit this site or email [email protected].
• NRT is free to Medicaid recipients through their pharmacy benefit: NC Medicaid recipients have ZERO copay for nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) including gum, patch and lozenge, with prescriptions for the products. Medicaid recipients without NRT prescriptions can find pharmacies that can prescribe NRT via protocol by searching the NC Pharmacy Finder using the service filter Nicotine Replacement Therapy.
• Quit For Life (Alliance Medicaid) or QuitlineNC provides NRT -up to 12 weeks to those who screen in as a BH condition. People who use the resources available through QuitlineNC are more than five times more likely to quit for good than those who try to quit on their own, without the standard of care assistance, which includes both tobacco treatment medications plus counseling help. These services are free and available 24/7. Alliance Medicaid Quit for Life information is here.  Visit www.QuitlineNC.com to refer/for support for uninsured/Alliance non-primary insured.

Tobacco Cessation Training Scholarships: Registration is now open for the Comprehensive Duke-UNC Tobacco Treatment Specialist July 14-22 Training Program. There are also short courses.  Check out all the offerings at the Duke-UNC TTS website. Alliance Health offers full tuition scholarships to contracted providers (including pharmacies) to cover the cost of the training; for more information on the scholarships, visit https://www.dukeunctts.com/alliancehealth.

Help Shape the Future of Smoking Cessation Treatment! A research team at Wake Forest University School of Medicine is recruiting clinicians and other healthcare professionals for a study looking at tobacco cessation interventions in hopes of building better digital tools (such as app-based cessation programs) to help people quit, particularly for people living with behavioral health conditions. Click here to learn more and participate.

Is your facility ready for the July 1 Breathe Easy  Tobacco Free Campus requirement? North Carolina Standard Plans, Tailored Plans, and LME/MCOs that serve people with Medicaid or who are uninsured will require most contracted medical, behavioral health, and some intellectual/developmental disabilities** (IDD)/traumatic brain injury (TBI) organizations to provide a 100% tobacco-free campus, by July 1, 2025. Check out the most recent Medicaid Bulletin that notes the date change to July 1, 2025. Refer to this Medicaid Bulletin released by NC Medicaid for full information about the requirements.

Free tobacco cessation pharmacotherapy (including varenicline and bupropion)  is available for NC residents who are uninsured (at or below 300% of the FPL) through NC MedAssist’s Free Pharmacy Program. You can find the application here, or see Free Pharmacy Program Information and the  Formulary.