City of Charlotte Offers Cessation Help to Employees

By Corliss Allen

According to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, cigarette smoking costs North Carolina $3.3 billion each year. In fact, men who smoke miss four more days of work each year than men who do not smoke. And women who smoke miss two more days of work each year than women who do not smoke. Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, but the good news is that tobacco use treatment doubles quitting success rates.

Since 2007, the City of Charlotte has banned the use of tobacco by employees or visitors in buildings owned or leased by the city. This policy also applies to employee tobacco use in city owned and leased vehicles. The City of Charlotte is shifting its focus from policy to the individual, and now offers tobacco cessation coverage to its employees.

The city’s wellness program, Wellness Works, is committed to helping employees quit both burning and smokeless tobacco. Over the years, the city has offered a range of cessation benefits from onsite cessation workshops to the most recent addition of prescription coverage for cessation medications. City workers can obtain free nicotine replacement products in combination with personalized health coaching to help them quit tobacco. Within the last year, the city has also added prescription coverage for other tobacco cessation medications.

Twenty-one percent of the City of Charlotte employees use tobacco, according to the most recent employee survey. Of those employees, more than half have enrolled in the tobacco cessation program. This increase in employee participation may be due to the City’s new deductible incentive. Starting in 2011 the city is offering a $300 medical plan deductible incentive to non-tobacco users. Employees that are non-tobacco users or use tobacco but enroll and actively participate in the city’s tobacco cessation program, will save $300 on their deductible. The city has promoted its newly revised tobacco cessation benefits through its wellness ambassadors, new employee orientation, open enrollment materials, wellness Wednesday promotions, and advertising in all wellness publications.

“Better health is a win-win for all employees,” explained Christina Fath, the City of Charlotte’s Wellness Administrator. “There are hundreds of employees enrolled in our health coaching programs, and I have been pleased with these numbers thus far. If we can get folks (employees) to quit tobacco products, they can be more productive, but most important they’ll improve their health for themselves and their families.”