|
|
|
What Is the Role of Health Insurance Coverage in Tobacco-Use Cessation?
- Health insurance coverage of medication and counseling increases the use of effective treatments.18
- Although 66% of Americans under the age of 65 are insured through an employer,22only 24% of employers offer any coverage for tobacco-use treatment.23
Coverage of tobacco-use cessation treatment increases both use of effective treatment and the
number of successful quit attempts.18
Return to Top
How Much Do Cessation Benefits Cost? Are They Cost-Effective?
- Tobacco cessation is more cost-effective than other common and covered disease prevention interventions, such as the treatment of hypertension and high blood cholesterol.14
- Cost analyses have shown tobacco cessation benefits to be either cost-saving or cost-neutral.3,
20
Overall, cost/expenditure to employers equalizes at 3 years; benefits exceed costs by 5 years.3
- It costs between 10 and 40 cents per member per month to provide a comprehensive tobacco cessation benefit (costs vary based on utilization and dependent coverage).19,24
- In contrast, the annual cost of tobacco use is about $3,400 per smoker or about $7.18 for each pack of cigarettes sold.4
- Neonatal health care costs related to smoking are equivalent to $704 for each maternal smoker.4 Randomized controlled trials indicate that a smoking cessation program for pregnant women can save as much as $6 for each $1 spent.25
- The sixth medication, bupropion SR (sustained release), is a non-nicotine medication that is thought to reduce the urge to smoke by affecting the same chemical messengers in the brain that are affected by nicotine.9
Return to Top
What Is the Experience of Companies and Health Plans Providing This
Benefit?
Businesses that have included a tobacco cessation benefit report that
this coverage has increased the number of smokers willing to undergo
treatment and increased the percentage that successfully quit.24,
26
|
|
How Tobacco Cessation Cuts Cost |
-
Over time, tobacco-use cessation benefits
generate financial returns for employers in four ways:
-
Reduced health care costs
3,
27
-
Reduced absenteeism
3,
28,
29
-
Increased on-the-job productivity
3,
28,
29
-
Reduced life insurance costs
3,
28
-
Benefits realized more immediately include:
-
Increases in employee productivity
3,
29
-
Reductions in smoking-attributed neonatal health care costs
25
-
Employers who provide a smoke-free workplace
may also realize savings on fire insurance and costs related to items such as ventilation services and property repair and upkeep.
3,
28
|
Return to Top
How Do I Get More Information?
Listed below are Web sites where you can find additional information on tobacco-use cessation or reimbursement for cessation treatment.
Smoking Cessation Treatment Effectiveness
- Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence is a Public Health Service-sponsored clinical practice guideline that contains evidence-based strategies and recommendations to support effective treatment
for tobacco use and nicotine addiction. The guideline and related consumer and clinician materials also can be found at
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/tobacco/.
- The Guide to Community Preventive Services provides information on the effectiveness of community-based interventions in three areas of tobacco-use prevention and control: (1) initiation of tobacco use, (2) cessation, and (3) reduction of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. Articles, slide sets, and commentaries can be found at
http://www.thecommunityguide.org/tobacco/.*
- Surgeon General's Reports related to tobacco are available on the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention Web site at http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/sgrpage.htm.
- Data on tobacco-use prevalence and tobacco-related morbidity and mortality rates can be found at two Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web sites: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data.htm
and http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/.
Return to Top
|
* Links to non-Federal organizations are provided solely as a service to our users.
Links do not constitute an endorsement of any organization by CDC or the Federal Government,
and none should be inferred. The CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual
organization Web pages found at this link. |
|
|
