| Why
should employers help employees stop using tobacco? |
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When
employees quit smoking, businesses save money.
In 1999, each adult smoker cost employers $1,760 in lost
productivity and $1,623 in excess medical expenditures.1
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Tobacco
use cessation treatment is the single most cost-effective
health insurance benefit for adults. 2,3,4 Smokers
are 2-3 times more likely to quit when they have help
than when they try to quit on their own. 5 Quitting prevents
numerous expensive health problems, including heart disease,
stroke, multiple cancers, respiratory diseases, pre-term
delivery and low birth-weight.6,7,8
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Employers
can make adhering to a smoke-free policy easier for their
employees by offering quitting services. Smoking
policies must be supported by procedures for handling
violations that are strictly enforced in order to be effective.
Instead of being strictly punitive, such procedures should
include help for violators, such as referrals to available
quitting services.
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| Learn
more: |
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Free
Services to Help Utahns Quit |
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Health
Plans and Employee Assistance Programs |
| |
Quitting-Related
Benefits Offered by Utah Health Plans |
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How
to Start a New Quitting Benefit Program |
| |
Utah
Indoor Clean Air Act Business Guide
|
| Free
Services to Help Utahns Quit |
Utah
employers are encouraged to refer tobacco-using employees
to the Utah Tobacco Quit Line and Utah QuitNet for quitting
support. These services are offered free of charge to
Utah residents and are valuable resources for employees
who want to quit using tobacco or who find it difficult
to follow the smoking policy because of nicotine addiction.
Employers can obtain referral cards and posters advertising
these programs by calling the Tobacco Free Resource Line:1-877-220-3466
or by visiting this web page:
The TRUTH Campaign
Marketing Resources
|
| |
Learn
more about the Utah
Tobacco Quit Line.
|
| |
Learn
more about Utah
Quitnet.
Back to Top
|
| Health
Plans and Employee Assistance Programs |
Your
employees are more likely to stop using tobacco with the
help of a comprehensive quitting program to complement
the support services of the Utah Tobacco Quit Line and
Utah QuitNet. The comprehensive program can be included
in your employee health plan and/or your employee assistance
program. Because tobacco users are more likely to quit
with the aid of both counseling and medications combined,
and because some individuals respond better to nicotine
replacement therapy and others respond better to bupropion
SR or varenicline, an evidence-based benefit package includes
ALL of the following elements:
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| Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) Approved Medications |
| |
|
Nicotine
Replacement Therapy (NRT) NRT is a medication
containing a low dosage of nicotine, without any of the
other harmful substances found in tobacco. It helps quitters
alleviate withdrawal symptoms and is not as addictive
as tobacco. It is sold over-the-counter in the form of
patches, gum and lozenges or by prescription only in the
form of inhalers or nasal sprays. |
| |
|
Bupropion
SR (Zyban) Bupropion SR is a nicotine-free prescription
antidepressant medication which helps quitters alleviate
withdrawal symptoms. Make sure your health plan authorizes
coverage of bupropion SR as a tobacco cessation aid; some
only authorize its use for the treatment of depression,
even though it has been approved by the FDA for both purposes. |
| |
|
Varenicline
(CHANTIX) Varenicline is a prescribed nicotine-free
pill that works in two ways, by providing some nicotine
effects to ease the withdrawal symptoms and by blocking
the effects of nicotine from cigarettes if people resume
smoking. The approved course of Chantix treatment is
12 weeks, a period that can be double for people who
successfully quit to increase the likelihood they will
remain smoke free.
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| Group
or Individual Counseling. |
| |
|
Counseling may be offered in person or by phone. To
be effective, total counseling time should last 90-300
minutes and be divided into at least four sessions.
5
|
| The
greatest economic and health benefits of cessation coverage
occur when co-payments for tobacco cessation treatments
are low or eliminated. 9
Back to Top
|
| Quitting-Related
Benefits Offered by Utah Health Plans |
| To
view some of the cessation programs offered by Utah
health insurance companies, see the the Tobacco
Cessation Benefits Offered through Private Utah Insurers
web page.
Back to Top
|
| How
to Start a New Quitting Benefit Program |
These
resources expand on the advantages of offering stop-smoking
benefits to your employees and offer practical advice
on initiating a benefit program.
|
 |
Invest in Tobacco Cessation for a Healthy, Productive
Workforce.
This pamphlet by the Pacific Center on Health
and Tobacco encourages employers to compare the cost
of tobacco-using employees to purchasing tobacco cessation
benefits.
View
Resource
|
|
Coverage
for Tobacco Use Cessation Treatments.
This brief handout by the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention describes evidence-based tobacco cessation
interventions and their cost-effectiveness.
PDF
format
HTML
format
|
|
Health
Insurance Benefits for Treatment of Tobacco Dependence:
Summary
This brief and clear summary by the Pacific Center on
Health and Tobacco explains the financial costs of tobacco
use to employers compared to the costs of purchasing smoking
cessation benefits.
View
Resource
|
|
Employer’s
Smoking Cessation Guide: Practical Approaches to a Costly
Workplace Problem
This guide explains how employers can implement and
benefit from workplace smoking bans and health insurance
coverage that includes tobacco cessation.
View
Resource
|
|
Making
Your Workplace Smoke-free: A Decision Maker’s
Guide
Chapter 4, Support for Employees who Smoke, emphasizes
how tobacco cessation treatment coverage complements
smoking bans in workplaces.
View
Resource
Back to Top
|
| Utah
Indoor Clean Air Act Business Guide |
| The
guide is designed to help business and building managers
comply with the law.
View Resource
Back
to Top
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|
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Sources: |
| |
1. |
Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention. Annual smoking-attributable
mortality, years of potential life lost, and economic
costs—United States, 1995Ð1999. Morbidity and
Mortality Weekly Report 2002;51(14); 300–03. |
| |
2. |
Warner
KE. Cost effectiveness of smoking-cessation therapies.
Interpretation of the evidence and implications for coverage.
Pharmacoeconomics 1997;11(6):538–49. |
| |
3. |
Cummings
SR, Rubin SM, Oster G. The cost-effectiveness of counseling
smokers to quit. Journal of the American Medical Association
1989;261(1):75–79. |
| |
4. |
Cummings
SR, Rubin SM, Oster G. The cost-effectiveness of counseling
smokers to quit. Journal of the American Medical Association
1989;261(1):75–79. |
| |
5. |
Fiore
MC, Bailey WC, Cohen SJ, et. al. Treating Tobacco Use
and Dependence: Clinical Practice Guideline. Rockville,
MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Public
Health Service. October 2000. |
| |
6. |
U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. Reducing the
Health Consequences of Smoking: 25 Years of Progress:
A Report of the Surgeon General: 1989 Executive Summary.
Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center
for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office
on Smoking and Health; 1989. |
| |
7. |
National
Cancer Institute. Health Effects of Exposure to Environmental
Tobacco Smoke. The Report of the California Environmental
Protection Agency. Smoking and Tobacco Control Monograph
10. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National
Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute. NIH Pub.
No. 99–4645, 1999. |
| |
8. |
U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. Women and Smoking:
A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, 2001. |
| |
9. |
Schauffler
HH. Defining benefits and payment for smoking cessation
treatments. Tobacco Control. 1997; 6 Suppl 1:S81-5. |
