State staff recommend studying billing tobacco quit-line services to Medicaid; committee backs review

The Social Services Appropriations Subcommittee endorsed a staff recommendation that the Department of Health and Human Services study whether Utah can bill Medicaid for tobacco cessation services delivered through the toll-free quit line and related programs.

Russell Franzen, staff to the committee, presented data showing the department spent about $800,000 on tobacco cessation services in 2025, delivered through phone and web-based supports. Franzen said roughly 1,500 phone callers used phone-based cessation services in 2025 and that about 41% of those phone callers were Medicaid enrollees. "We don't currently bill any of these services to Medicaid," he said, and staff estimated that billing the Medicaid share could generate approximately $200,000 in additional federal funds if administrative processes were established.

State Medicaid Director Jen Strohecker and Janae Duncan, division director for population health, told lawmakers the state already asks phone callers about insurance status during enrollment, and that for phone-based services a back-end administrative claiming arrangement could identify Medicaid enrollees after service delivery and draw federal match without an apparent need for new staff. The unknown is website users, whose insurance status is not collected at present.

Committee members asked operational and effectiveness questions, including whether collecting insurance information would create a barrier to service use and whether the program saves medical costs by reducing tobacco-related disease. Franzen and department staff said phone enrollments already capture insurance status and that cessation programs produce long-term health-care savings.

The staff recommendation recorded in the hearing materials reads: "Department of Health and Human Services shall advise by 10/01/2025 to the Social Services Appropriations Subcommittee on options to bill tobacco quit line services for Medicaid clients to Medicaid, as well as the financial impacts." The committee moved and approved a package of four staff recommendations that included the quit-line billing study; the motion was made by Representative Ward and carried with the committee's consent.

Why it matters: billing an eligible portion of quit-line services to Medicaid could increase federal reimbursement for the program and free state funds for other public health work; operational questions remain about how to collect or match website users' insurance status and whether any administrative changes would require additional staff or systems work.