PANEL RECOMMENDS extending smoking-cessation hotline until end of fiscal year.

An Arkansas Legislative Council subcommittee voted Tuesday to recommend extending a contract for the state’s smoking-cessation hotline until the end of the fiscal year.

In June, the Legislative Council voted not to review that contract.

Rep. Jeff Wardlaw, D-Hermitage, said the state Department of Health had agreed to reduce the cost of the $1.8 million contract by referring those with insurance elsewhere.

“There’s quit lines with Blue Cross Blue Shield. There’s quit lines with [the Employee Benefits Division]. There’s quit lines all out there, other than this one,” Wardlaw told lawmakers.

“We got an agreement with the Health Department in a meeting that they would work for the next eight months to come up with a contract with this company to verify people, so that we’re not giving them a free service — we’re using their insurance for the service.”

Although the Legislative Council had voted in June not to review the contract with National Jewish Health in Denver, Robert Brech, chief financial officer at the Health Department, said lawmakers had granted several short extensions. Without the review, the contract won’t take effect.

Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, made the motion in June not to review the contract. Along with other lawmakers, he questioned the program’s effectiveness and cost.

“I’m almost positive that smoking cessation is covered by insurance plans now as required as a benefit under the [Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act] — so everyone should have some benefit with this,” he said at the time.

Brech said Tuesday that the department would try to bill people with private insurance for the services.

However, “some insurance companies don’t want to do that because they’ve gone through the trouble of setting up their own system,” he said.

There are minimum standards for smoking-cessation hotlines set forth in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, he said.

“I see both sides of it,” Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, told Brech. “I can see why they would not want to reimburse us. On the other hand, I don’t think it would be wise of us to refer someone to a service that is minimum — that is not as good as they would get with the tobacco settlement funds.”

The state’s smoking-cessation hotline — and other anti-tobacco programs — are paid for from tobacco settlement funds. The state budgets $12 million for those efforts, though less is typically spent, Gary Wheeler, the state’s chief medical officer, has said.

In Arkansas, 24.7 percent of adults used cigarettes in 2014, according to the latest statistics from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Only West Virginia and Kentucky have higher rates of cigarette use among adults.

National Jewish Health provides counseling, nicotine patches and special programs for groups and pregnant women under its contract with Arkansas. About 11,900 used the program last fiscal year.

The Review Subcommittee will report its recommendation Friday to the Arkansas Legislative Council.