Data from Harvard Medical School Advance Knowledge in Managed Care (Association of Tobacco Dependence Treatment Coverage Expansion With Smoking Behaviors Among Medicaid Beneficiaries Living With Substance Use Disorder): Managed Care

2025 MAR 24 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators publish new report on Managed Care. According to news reporting originating in Boston, Massachusetts, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Many U.S. states expanded the generosity of Medicaid insurance coverage of tobacco dependence treatment over the last fifteen years, but little is known about how coverage impacts cigarette smoking, especially for individuals with substance use disorder. Data are from the 2009 to 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health and include Medicaid beneficiaries 18-64 years old with past year substance use disorder who smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime.”

Financial support for this research came from NIH National Cancer Institute (NCI).

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Harvard Medical School, “Outcomes were smoking cessation, nicotine dependence, and number of cigarettes smoked per month. Difference-in-differences models were estimated for smoking behavior by state and year of comprehensive tobacco dependence treatment coverage, estimating multivariable linear probability models, adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics, co-occurring mental illness, and area-level provider supply. All data were analyzed in 2023 and 2024. Rates of nicotine dependence among individuals with past-year SUD increased slightly between 2009 and 2018 among individuals living in states with comprehensive tobacco dependence treatment coverage (55.6% to 58.6%) and changed little among individuals living in states with no or partial TDT coverage (60.0% to 59.5%). Quit rates increased for individuals with substance use disorder during this time, with no differences by comprehensive tobacco dependence treatment coverage. In adjusted models, no significant association between comprehensive Medicaid tobacco dependence treatment coverage and smoking behaviors was identified (e.g., cessation: b= -0.02, CI=-0.08, 0.04). One-year lagged outcomes and sensitivity analyses accounting for the differential time of initiation of state policies demonstrated similar results. Comprehensive tobacco dependence treatment coverage had no differential effect on smoking cessation among ever smokers with or without substance use disorder, and its expansion was not associated with changes in smoking behaviors for Medicaid beneficiaries with substance use disorder.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Other multilevel interventions may be needed to impact smoking cessation rates, such as awareness and education campaigns of expanded tobacco dependence treatment coverage benefits, and interventions that reduce social and structural barriers to treatment. <.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Association of Tobacco Dependence Treatment Coverage Expansion With Smoking Behaviors Among Medicaid Beneficiaries Living With Substance Use Disorder. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2025;68(3):485-496. American Journal of Preventive Medicine can be contacted at: Elsevier Science Inc, Ste 800, 230 Park Ave, New York, NY 10169, USA. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; American Journal of Preventive Medicine - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/american-journal-of-preventive-medicine/)

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Benjamin Le Cook, Harvard Medical School, Dept. of Psychiatry, Boston, MA, United States. Additional authors for this research include Michael Flores, Ana M. Progovac, Margo Moyer, Katie E. Holmes, Geoff Ferris Wayne, Thomas Le, Anika Kumar, Douglas Levy and Brendan Saloner.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2024.11.010. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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