During the current recession, organizations are looking for cost savings wherever they can find them. There is particular pressure on employers’ benefits managers to try to reduce those ever increasing health care costs. There has never been a better time to contain cost increases by implementing a program like Free & Clear’s Quit For Life® Program.

Free & Clear happens to be in the right place at the right time. Our customer base and our sales continue to grow rapidly as organizations recognize what the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) has been saying for some time, that “there is no better investment in health care for employers than a comprehensive tobacco cessation program.” Both the CDC and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have cited Free & Clear as having a model cessation program.

Why has it taken so long for tobacco cessation to be recognized as an important benefit for companies to promote and provide? Until recently, some employers considered tobacco use to be a personal choice and not an issue for their concern as employers. This perception has been changing due to the large amount of media attention paid to tobacco issues and the growing awareness of not only the health risks but the economic costs to the employer. Still, less than half of all companies have any sort of a tobacco cessation program for their employees, and less than 10% invest in a comprehensive, evidence-based program like Quit For Life.

While tobacco use prevalence in the United States has declined significantly in the past few decades, there are still 45 million smokers who cost their employers an average excess cost of nearly $5,500 per year. Rather than just focusing on broad-based wellness programs for all employees, employers now realize that a evidence-based tobacco cessation program can have a great effect on the 20% of employees who create a disproportionate cost burden, both in terms medical costs and lost productivity.

Some employers prefer to contract for all of their wellness and healthy lifestyles programs from a single source like their health plan provider or EAP. Such organizations typically employ coaches who cover many topics like depression, stress, weight concerns, alcohol, tobacco, and a variety of health issues. They perform very useful coaching services but they are not tobacco cessation experts, and tobacco addiction is a very severe chronic condition.

To be effective in helping people to quit their tobacco addiction, employers need to rely on specialists like the Quit Coaches® available in the Quit For Life Program. Our many clients have acknowledged this expertise and have decided to carve out tobacco cessation from their other programs.