Employers

Adopting tobacco cessation and prevention programs in the workplace can decrease medical costs, lead to improved productivity, and most importantly, improve employee health.

The Cost of Tobacco Use by Employees

• The cost of smoking for companies, including direct medical expenses and lost productivity due to smoking-related premature death, is estimated by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) to be approximately $3,856 per smoker per year.1
• The total losses for companies due to smoking were estimated at $76 billion in health care and $82 billion in lost productivity in 2005.

What Employers Can Do

• Adopting a tobacco treatment program in the workplace can decrease medical costs, lead to improved productivity, and most importantly, improve employee health.
• Educate employees about the health risks associated with tobacco use and the benefits of quitting.
• Help your employees quit tobacco use through cessation programs and workplace support.
• Include tobacco cessation in health care plans offered to employees.
• Create a tobacco-free workplace.

Helpful Links

Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights hosts a website with information about secondhand smoke exposure in the workplace. Through this website, you can also access the Fundamentals of Smoke-free Workplace Laws, a document that contains principles and best practices for implementing a smoke-free campaign in the workplace.

The CDC provides a number of resources regarding how to help your employees quit smoking. Here, you can also find a document about why health insurance coverage for tobacco use treatments is important, how benefits should be designed, and their cost effectiveness.

Free & Clear, Inc. is a great resource for employers to learn about how to help their employees with tobacco cessation. This is the only U.S. commercial tobacco treatment program that has been shown to be effective in numerous randomized trials and third-party evaluations.

The Free & Clear program provides:

• QuitKits
• Phone-based treatment sessions
• Unlimited toll-free access to quit coaches
• Recommendations regarding the suggested type, dose, and duration of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT)
• NRT is also provided if the employer chooses to include this benefit

Join Together highlights employers who are waiving the consumer copay for tobacco cessation prescriptions.

The University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention (UW-CTRI) also provides information for employers who are considering creating a tobacco-free workplace (http://www.ctri.wisc.edu/Employers/employers.htm).

Fax to Assist

If you are employed by a HIPAA-covered facility, see Fax to Assist for more information on our Fax Referral Program.