CA Quits held their annual Tobacco-Free Champions' meeting on November 7th, 2024. A total of 100 participants representing local health departments, health systems, Medi-Cal managed care plans, community-based organizations, and state agencies joined to learn how partners can work together to promote tobacco cessation treatment.

Highlights from the meeting include:

• Tobacco Cessation in California - Efforts of the Past and Present: The California Tobacco Prevention Program shared statewide cessation efforts and resources/training opportunities available to our partners.

• Population Health and Health Equity - Medi-Cal Managed Care Plan (MCP) partnerships: Partnership HealthPlan of California and Inland Empire Health Plan shared different population health approaches to increase cessation opportunities, including training pharmacy technicians as community health workers.

• Addressing Tobacco Health Equity in Priority Populations in Health Systems: Riverside University Health System addressed health equity with their Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations and described how they improved their tobacco quality metrics.

Thank you to all our presenters and partners who continue collaborating to improve quality and health equity!

Two Care Gap Strategies for Tobacco

CA Quits provides support to public hospital clinics on improving their Tobacco Assessment and Counseling quality metric for the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) Quality Incentive Pool (QIP) program. December is a busy time to address care gaps and improve performance goals by the end of the calendar year.

UC Davis Health and UC San Diego Health have been implementing proactive outreach by Kick It California to Medi-Cal patients who have a care gap for tobacco counseling. Kick It California will have helped contact hundreds of patients by the end of December 2024. The two strategies differ in how patients are notified about an upcoming call:

• Opt-out Notification (UC Davis Health)

Patient will receive a call from Kick It California in a few days.

• Opt-in Notification (UC San Diego Health)

Patient can request not to receive a call from Kick It California.

Data will be analyzed in early 2025 for quality reporting. 

2024 Tobacco Learning Collaborative

Our 2024 Tobacco Learning Collaborative (TLC) engaged 23 QIP health systems (12 large and 11 small public hospital clinics). A key topic this year was the updated quality metric guidance for tobacco assessment to include e-cigarettes and vapes.

Topics covered included:

• Screening and Documenting Tobacco/Nicotine Products
• Tools and Strategies for Screening Tobacco/Nicotine
• Addressing Health Equity and Next Steps



Quarterly TLC virtual meetings will resume in the new year to support shared learning and peer-to-peer engagement. For more information, please contact CA Quits Public Hospital Systems Coordinator, Moreen Sharma, mmsharma@ucdavis.edu.

CA Quits facilitated two Medi-Cal Managed Care Plan (MCP) workgroups and engaged 18 MCPs in 2024.

Topics discussed included:

• Pharmacy models. Opportunities for MCPs and community pharmacies to collaborate and provide reimbursable tobacco treatment services through AB 1114 or Community Health Worker (CHW) benefit. Partnership HealthPlan of California is one of the MCPs that implemented AB 1114 and made its policy and procedure available to the public. We encourage MCPs across the state to engage their community pharmacies as they are trusted community partners.

• Pre-natal tobacco and cannabis risks. Kaiser Permanente Northern California shared their research on the use and co-use of tobacco and cannabis products among pregnant persons and the health risks. They also provide recommendations for providers on how to engage individuals. Their work is important in addressing DHCS’s Bold Goals and measures to improve prenatal and postpartum care and reduce health disparities.

We look forward to our continued partnership with MCPs in 2025 and identifying opportunities and strategies to provide their members access to tobacco treatment services. For more information about the MCP workgroup or if you are with an MCP and would like to participate, contact Shannon Haggitt, Plan & Partner Manager, srhaggitt@ucdavis.edu.



The Tobacco Cessation Policy Research Center (TCPRC) hosted its 1st Annual Summit on 10/8/24 at UC Center Sacramento. Over 200 participants came together in-person and online for a packed day of learning, networking, and engaging in discussion for future tobacco cessation efforts. The national keynote speaker was Dr. Brenna van Frank, Senior Medical Officer, Office on Smoking and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A keynote panel highlighted California’s 3 publicly covered insurance plans, which are aligning more on quality efforts. Cindy Valencia, CA Quits Project Director, talked about CA Quits' work partnering with DHCS for advancing tobacco treatment with Medi-Cal. Other keynote panelists included Barbara Rubino, Associate Chief Medical Officer at Covered California and Julia Logan, Chief Medical Officer at CalPERS.

The TCPRC policy projects featured work on improving access with pharmacies, delivery in Substance Use Disorder facilities, engagement on flavored tobacco, and equity with health plans for tobacco cessation. The TCPRC training core also featured awarded work in a poster session.

Click here to view the TCPRC Summit Summary, which includes access to the presentations and recordings. The TCPRC is a community-academic partnership (Principal Investigator: Elisa Tong) funded by California’s Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program.

Kaiser Permanente has helped more than 300,000 people quit smoking in Northern California

• Published in the December 2024 American Journal of Preventive Cardiology, Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, highlights the seven key features implemented within their integrated healthcare system to help their patients quit smoking.

New Surgeon General's Report: Eliminating Tobacco-Related

Disease and Death: Addressing Disparities

The 35^th report reviews the latest scientific evidence on disparities in commercial tobacco use. Tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke has not decreased at the same rate across all population groups. Key factors and groups at risk are identified which can assist health equity efforts:

• “(d)espite strong progress in reducing commercial tobacco use at the population level, disparities in use persist by race and ethnicity, level of income, level of education, sexual orientation, gender identity, type of occupation, geography, and behavioral health status. Exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke remains disproportionately higher among Black people than among people in other racial and ethnic groups, youth than among adults, and people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds…”.

The report includes tobacco prevention and control strategies that have the potential to reduce disparities, and a call to action for all sectors of society to realize a vision for a future without tobacco-related harms. Elisa Tong, CA Quits Principal Investigator, was a Scientific Reviewer for this report.

Practical Guide to Smoking Cessation

A commentary by UCSF Drs. Pam Ling and Edward Goetzl address clinical guidance and evidence for the increasingly complex landscape of tobacco and nicotine products, including e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches.

What are Oral Nicotine Pouches?

Nicotine pouches are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration to quit tobacco. Kick It California's flyer can help educate patients and providers of these popular products. 

Past Webinar



• 10/23/24: Dr. Elisa Tong presented on the "Clinical and Public Health Interventions for Tobacco and Cannabis" at the UC Center Sacramento. Click here to view the webinar recording and presentation slides.

Upcoming Webinars

• 1/9/25: Presenter: Edward J. Perka, Jr., CASAC, NCNTT of the MaineHealth Center for Tobacco Independence - Motivational Interviewing 101. This webinar explores some concepts and strategies to increase patient engagement while discussing their smoking behavior.

• 1/29/25: Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at UCSF hosts - 2024 Cessation Updates: Year in Review.

• 1/30/25: Action on Smoking & Health (ASH) hosts - Tobacco Cessation is Prevention: The Need to Ramp Up Access to Cessation Treatment in the U.S.

CA Quits | www.caquits.com.