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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Office on Smoking and Health
Tel: 1-800-CDC-INFO
(1-800-232-4636)
TTY: 1-888-232-6348
E-mail: tobaccoinfo@cdc.gov
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Coverage for Tobacco Use Cessation Treatments
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
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
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 |
- Union Pacific Railroad has experienced a decrease smoking
prevalence among its employees from 40% to 25% in the 7-year
period that it has offered a cessation benefit as part of a
comprehensive cessation program. 26
-
At the Group Health Cooperative in Seattle, enrollees offered
full coverage for smoking cessation treatments were four times
as likely to try to quit and four times as likely to succeed.24
|
-
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
|
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/data_statistics/sgr/index.htm.
-
Data on tobacco-use prevalence and tobacco-related morbidity and
mortality rates can be found at two CDC Web sites:
Smoking & Tobacco Use
at http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/ and
National Center for Helath Statistics
at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/.
Page last updated 02/28/2007