It’s never too late to quit smoking and improve your health. If you smoke and are ready to try quitting, Medicare will cover smoking-cessation counseling sessions. Medicare covers up to four sessions twice a year. During these sessions, a counselor will work with you one on one. (Medicare also covers a host of other valuable preventive care services.)
Medicare’s coverage depends upon whether you have a health condition related to or caused by smoking. If you have Original Medicare (also called traditional Medicare) and you do not have a smoking-related condition, Medicare will cover the full cost of your smoking cessation sessions so long as you visit a Medicare-certified provider. Smoking-cessation is one of many preventive care services that Medicare covers in full. If you have a corporate Medicare plan, sometimes called a Medicare Advantage plan, will cover the full cost from an in-network provider.
If you have a smoking-related condition, Medicare will cover 80 percent of the cost of the sessions from a Medicare-certified provider. You will first need to meet your deductible. Supplemental insurance, such as a Medigap plan, retiree coverage or Medicaid, will generally fill these coverage gaps.
Medicare will also cover prescription drugs to help you quit smoking through the Part D prescription drug benefit. Medicare will not cover nicotine patches, gum or other over-the-counter treatments to quit smoking, It will also not cover hypnosis.
The folks at the tobacco companies are the only people who think you should keep smoking. This John Oliver video shows you what lengths they will go to to promote smoking around the world. It’s horrifying and really worth watching.
(This article was originally published on September 23, 2015 and has been updated.)
Here’s more from Just Care:
- How to get free or low-cost dental care
- Medicare may cover weight-loss counseling
- Medicare covers diabetes prevention program
- Medicare may cover nutrition counseling
- Get the preventive care you need: Medicare pays for it
The fact that medicare won’t pay for nicotine patches or gum etc.,concerns me.But they will pay for pill form rx meds.to quit.Why? Isn’t the old saying true. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.This just shows me that they & the gov.are in bed with “Big Pharma”.I have tried Chantix, had a bad reaction to it.My point; wouldn’t it be cheaper all around, for medicare to pay for all cessation products, rather than paying for extremely expensive lung & other smoking related cancer treatments????????
Medicare will pay for pain medication and people are selling them and are getting addicted to pain medication but won’t help people quit smoking I worked all my life and paid into Medicare and not I need nicotine patches and I can’t afford to pay for them
Mary Lee – I wonder the same thing. I have plan G supplement, so as long as Medicare approves I pay nothing. The catch is, take for instance a medically necessary lift chair, it has to be purchased through Medicare approved MDE supplier. The process takes longer for approval therefore the supply store makes patient pay full price then collect reimbursement from Medicare by patient not supplier, but they charge 3 times the price for same chair (brand and all) that regular stores charge but you can’t get reimbursed for it.