Resolve, To Remove Barriers to Smoking Cessation Treatment in Maine

Sec. 1. Department of Health and Human Services to adopt best practice treatment for tobacco cessation. Resolved: That no later than January 1, 2008 the Department of Health and Human Services shall adopt rules to implement for MaineCare the best practice treatment as delineated in the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service clinical practice guideline “Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence,” first published in 2000, to reduce the barriers to effective tobacco cessation treatment through reimbursement to clinicians that provide intermediate and intensive counseling services and through payment for all United States Food and Drug Administration approved tobacco cessation first-line pharmacotherapies; and be it further

Sec. 2. Bureau of Insurance to adopt rules to mandate that insurers cover tobacco cessation treatment. Resolved: That no later than January 1, 2008 the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, Bureau of Insurance shall adopt rules to mandate that an insurer offering health insurance provide a standard insurance benefit for tobacco cessation treatment that is the same as that provided by MaineCare on January 1, 2008; and be it further

Sec. 3. Department of Health and Human Services and Bureau of Insurance to collaborate with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Resolved: That the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, Bureau of Insurance shall collaborate with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Partnership for a Tobacco-Free Maine to develop a design of a model tobacco cessation treatment program and to ensure the effective implementation of the tobacco cessation treatment insurance benefit required under section 2.

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This resolve: