Employers To Employees: Please Quit | Smoking cessation programs offer rewards for workers, companies
Smoking is banned in almost all Massachusetts workplaces. In many offices, managers have to deal with tension between smokers and nonsmokers over equal break time.
And, according to the American Lung Association, employers and insurance plans pay an extra $210 a year for every covered employee who smokes.
So it makes sense that employers would be thrilled to see their workers quitting the habit. And these days many are doing more than sitting and waiting.
They’re reaching out to employees who smoke and offering tools to help them stop.
The UMass Model
One of the highest profile workplace smoking cessation programs of the past year was at UMass Medical School and UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester.
To prepare for becoming tobacco free in May, the hospitals offered both patients and staff support including nicotine replacement therapy and prescription drugs.
Between the start of March and the end of May, hospital staff said more than 150 employees, or about 7 percent of staff who smoke, at least looked into the program, which they could take advantage of for free.
Ann Ottalagana, manager of health promotions at the American Lung Association’s Springfield office, said it’s common for employers to offer smoking cessation programs, such as the one provided by her organization, as they implement workplace smoking bans.
“It is in their best interest to provide support for the employee during that transition period,” she said.
Ottalagana said that besides costing employers less for health insurance, nonsmokers tend to take fewer sick days than smokers.
The ALA program has groups of up to 15 employees meet for seven weeks with a trained facilitator.
Before quitting, they discuss topics like smoking triggers and patterns and make a plan.
After they quit, they follow up with sessions on topics like stress management and exercise. One year after the program, Ottalagna said, 25 to 35 percent of participants have managed to stay away from cigarettes.
Ottalagana said ALA offers its program to employers all over the place, but it has no office in Central Massachusetts and hasn’t had many participants from the area recently.
EMC Corp. of Hopkinton, the region’s biggest employer besides UMass Memorial, offers a program with many of the same features as the ALA’s, but instead of involving physical meetings it’s all online.
EMC spokeswoman Lesley Ogrodnick said employees and their spouses can access the program, called Ready Set Stop, from home or work through the company’s health care portal.
That’s the same place they can get personal health records and information on issues like exercise and nutrition.
Ready Set Stop is a 10-session program covering topics like planning for triggers, survival tips and nutrition and exercise.
“Quitting smoking’s a really generally recognized challenge that a lot of people try to tackle,” Ogrodnick said. “It’s really sort of any easy decision to be able to offer something.”
EMC also has on site gyms and a variety of other wellness programs.
The company promotes the programs as an employee perk, and Ogrodnick said they also seem to be helping keep corporate costs down.
“As a company, the annual trend of our health care costs is significantly lower than the national trend,” she said.
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