Medical Assistance with Smoking and Tobacco Cessation

he three components of this measure assess different facets of providing medical assistance with smoking and tobacco use cessation:
Advising Smokers and Tobacco Users to Quit: A rolling average represents the percentage of patients 18 years of age and older who are current smokers or tobacco users and who received advice to quit during the measurement year.
Discussing Cessation Medications: A rolling average represents the percentage of patients 18 years of age and older who are current smokers or tobacco users and who discussed or were recommended cessation medications during the measurement year.
Discussing Cessation Strategies: A rolling average represents the percentage of patients 18 years of age and older who are current smokers or tobacco users and who discussed or were provided cessation methods or strategies during the measurement year.

Date Reviewed: July 21, 2018
Do Not Support: Uncertain Validity
    Health Plan Integrated Delivery System

Measure Info

NQF 0027 NQF Endorsed
Measure Type
Process
Measure Steward
National Committee for Quality Assurance
Clinical Topic Area
Prevention and Wellness
Substance Use
Care Setting
Outpatient
Data Source
Instrument-Based Data

ACP does not support NQF measure #0027: “Medical Assistance with Smoking and Tobacco Cessation.” This measure represents an important clinical concept and it is appropriately specified to assess performance at the health-plan-level of analysis; however, the numerator specifications are outdated and should include electronic cigarettes in the tobacco use definition. Furthermore, while this measure is appropriately specified to assess performance at the health-plan level of analysis, it is not appropriately specified to assess performance of individual clinicians. Smoking rates vary by state and the denominator population may be too low in some individual/group practices to produce a stable performance estimate.