Quitline: Free Help for Patients to Quit Smoking

The Alabama Tobacco Quitline is a free telephone (800-784-8669) and online counseling service for your patients who are ready to quit tobacco. The Quitline is open from 6 a.m. to midnight seven days a week. All Quitline services are free to Alabama residents including telephone and online coaching, printed support materials, and up to eight weeks of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) patches, if enrolled in coaching and medically eligible.

Health care providers are encouraged to refer patients directly to the Quitline by faxing a referral form to 1-800-692-9023 or completing an electronic referral form. Both forms are available at www.quitnowalabama.com. The Quitline will contact the referred patient within 24 hours of receiving a referral to enroll the patient in the Quitline counseling program. Once the patient has enrolled in the program and begun counseling, a two-week supply of NRT is mailed directly to the patient. The Quitline can provide up to eight weeks of NRT as long as the patient is enrolled in the counseling program and medically eligible.

The Quitline is funded through the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The program is available to help callers quit any type of tobacco use.

For Medicaid Patients…

Medicaid patients are required to get their medications through Medicaid services. Medicaid pays for any of the seven approved cessation medications if the following documentation is submitted: both the Medicaid Pharmacy Smoking Cessation Prior Authorization Request form and Quitline referral form should be faxed to Health Information Design, 1-800-748-0116, and the Quitline referral form should be faxed to the Quitline at 1-800-692-9023. Free counseling services are available to Medicaid patients through the Quitline.

Approved cessation medications include nicotine patches, gum, lozenges, inhalers, nasal spray, varenicline and Bupropion SR, according to Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence, U.S. Clinical Practice Guidelines, 2008.

The Quitline fax referral forms, both English and Spanish versions, and the Medicaid Pharmacy Smoking Cessation Prior Authorization Request Form can be found at www.quitnowalabama.com.

For more information about the Alabama Tobacco Quitline, or to order Quitline materials for your office, call Julie Hare at (334) 206-3830 or email Julie.Hare@adph.state.al.us. Visit www.quitnowalabama.com and www.adph.org/tobacco, click on Healthcare Providers.