Implementing Smoking Cessation Programs at the Workplace: Strategies to Tackle Tobacco for Employers and Health Plans
September 9, 2008

SPEAKER:
Dawn Robbins
Founder
Make IT Your Business: Insure A Tobacco-Free Workforce

WEBINAR OVERVIEW:
Tobacco dependence has often been called the nation's #1 preventable problem. A study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that smoking is one of the costliest medical conditions, with an estimated annual cost of $3,400 per smoker per year. This cost is mostly absorbed by employers in lost productivity, higher medical expenses and high rates of absenteeism. These statistics clearly indicate the extent to which smoking is not only injurious to the health of the employee, but also to organization financial performance and productivity. The question then is this—how can employers and health plans institute programs that will enable their employees and members respectively to quit smoking?

In fact, employers can embrace smoking cessation programs to tackle the problem of tobacco in the workforce. Dawn Robbins, Founder of Make it Your Business, will provides practical strategies by means of which employers can add smoking cessation benefits to a company's package at a minimal cost. She provides an in-depth overview and compelling analysis of the benefits of smoking cessation programs to all parties—the employer, the health plan and the patient. The presentation will help in the process of effectively launching and managing a smoking cessation program that will improve employee health as well as save millions for the organization.

Learning Objectives:

• Demonstrating ROI for smoking cessation programs
• Redesigning plans and benefits to include affordable smoking cessation programs
• Empowering different groups of employees to quit smoking by targeting specific factors
• Developing smoking policies that discourage tobacco usage
• Instituting health risk appraisals and other workplace health promotions
• Creating consensus amongst all key stakeholders—human resources, benefits design and the employee

Recording:  $259