State Offers Gift Cards for Calling Smokers’ Helpline
California is offering select Medi-Cal beneficiaries $20 retail gift cards if they call the state Smokers' Helpline and complete the sign-up process to participate in telephone counseling sessions. Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program. Elisa Tong -- associate professor at UC-Davis Medical Center -- said that a pilot project for the initiative already has been completed in Sacramento and showed positive results. The state is offering the gift cards through a grant from the federal health reform law.
- "Anti-Smoking Campaign Hopes Gift Cards Do the Trick" (Craft, Sacramento Bee, 9/10).