If you could have a safer, cleaner and healthier workplace, would you? If you could cut health care costs and reduce productivity losses to illness, would you? Making your business smoke-free saves lives and saves you money.
Indiana employers are impacted greatly by the burden of tobacco use. The average annual health care cost associated with tobacco use in Indiana is $2.2 billion; plus the average annual cost burden due to lost productivity related to smoking in Indiana is $2.6 billion.
Going smoke-free lowers the risk of fires and accidental injuries, which can reduce your insurance costs. Smoke-free businesses have negotiated for lower fire and property insurance premiums, with some businesses winning reductions of 25-30%.
Everyone benefits when the air is cleared of secondhand smoke – even smokers. Workers become healthier. Healthier workers miss less work, are more productive and have lower healthcare costs. Smokefree initiatives are good for your workers’ health – and that’s good for your bottom line.
Take Your first step to reducing health care costs
More than 80 percent of all smokers in Indiana want to quit; many employees are looking for help to break their tobacco addiction. The Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Agency offers Indiana employers its Quit Now Preferred Employer program. The Quit Now Preferred Employer program is a great value for employers interested in reducing tobacco use and smoking-related costs. By encouraging and supporting cessation for your employees, you may experience costs savings related to:
- Paying less for workers’ compensation. Consider average workers’ compensation costs for a smoker are $2,189 versus only $176 for a nonsmoker.
- Reducing construction and maintenance costs, which are estimated to be 7 percent higher in buildings that allow smoking than in buildings that are smoke free.
- Cutting employee absenteeism and improving productivity and morale. This may reduce potential costs related to temporary replacements.
The benefits are far-reaching; participating companies are likely to reap cost savings from lower insurance premiums, increased productivity and fewer medical claims.
Benefits of being a Quit Now preferred employer
Becoming a Quit Now Preferred Employer is an aggressive way to reduce tobacco use in the workplace and improve the health and wellness of employees. Companies of any size will have access to the resources needed to begin helping those who are ready to quit tobacco. By completing the brief enrollment form, your company becomes connected to a statewide network of cessation specialists, health experts and wellness-conscious employers.
As a Quit Now Preferred Employer, you receive:
- Ability to fax refer employees to the Indiana Tobacco Quitline
- Materials to educate employees about tobacco use and the quitline
- Updates on new resources, research and quitline promotional materials
- Monthly summary of employees who were fax referred into the program. The aggregate report captures the number of participants fax referred from your organization. Due to HIPAA regulation, specific employee data cannot be provided.
Enroll today
The Quit Now Preferred Employer program is available for Indiana employers. Enrollment in the free program allows employers to receive employee education materials, fax referral forms, monthly summaries on fax referred employees and updates on new resources and news from the Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Agency.
Enrollment as a Quit Now Preferred Employer is quick and simple.
To download a PDF of the enrollment form and fax your information, click the appropriate link: