Dental providers: Get certified to help your patients quit tobacco

What to know

• Quitting tobacco isn’t easy. But according to the CDC, doing so reduces the risk of premature death and can add as much as 10 years to life expectancy.
• By knowing how to talk to your patients about tobacco, you can help your patients quit, improve their health status and enhance their quality of life.
• Dentists who provide tobacco cessation services for reimbursement from GHP Family must be registered as a certified Tobacco Cessation Program provider by the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH).
• If you’re on the Pre-Approved Tobacco Cessation Registry, you can be paid for the tobacco cessation counseling services provided to your GHP Family patients.
• Once registered, you’ll be reimbursed for appropriately billing D1320 - tobacco counseling for the control and prevention of oral disease.

Acquire your statewide tobacco counseling certification

• Visit the state’s Pre-Approved Tobacco Cessation Registry page.
• Complete Every Smoker, Every Time (ESET) — a free, 60-minute online training course about tobacco, nicotine and the health risks associated with their use. Pass the post-course test and save your emailed certificate. You’ll need the certificate to register with the state.
• Complete the Pre-Approved Tobacco Cessation Registry (TREES) application: 1) Fill all required fields; 2) Print your completed application; 3) Verify you’ve checked the attestation box; 4) Print, sign and date the form and include your title; 5) Submit the completed application, along with the ESET notification to DOH:
  
  • Email: RA-Registry@pa.gov
  • Mail: Pre-Approved Tobacco Cessation Registry Program
    Division of Tobacco Prevention and Control
    Pennsylvania Department of Health
    625 Forster St., Room 1032, H&W Building
    Harrisburg, PA 17120
  •  Fax: 717-214-6690

Billing D1320

• In order to bill D1320, each provider must be enrolled with the 370-specialty code.
• For dentists, the first step in this process will automatically initiate when you check the box to be referred to DHS MA on the TREES application.
• For Public Health Dental Hygiene Practitioners, a separate enrollment application is needed to enroll as a PT 37 Specialty type 370. Complete this application online.
• D1320 can be billed only for members aged 13 and older, once per calendar year for each member, and must be done in conjunction with a scheduled cleaning procedure or within six months of a cleaning procedure. 
• D1320 must be billed with Nicotine Dependence code F17.200 - F17.299.