What hidden healthcare costs lurk in your organization? By helping employees quit smoking, vaping, or using other tobacco, employers can reduce healthcare costs and boost workplace productivity.
Today, employers face pressure from rising healthcare costs, often associated with chronic conditions such as cancer, heart disease, and musculoskeletal conditions. Among the less visible – but a significant contributor to these increased costs – is tobacco use.
Many large U.S. companies underestimate the financial impact tobacco has on their healthcare claims, often viewing it as less crucial compared to other pressing health concerns.
However, tobacco use not only elevates healthcare expenses but it exacerbates chronic conditions with hidden costs employers can’t directly see.
Why is tobacco use often hidden in healthcare claims?
While smoking can cause severe health issues like cancer, health claims focus on the specific diagnoses and treatments for these conditions rather than recognizing tobacco use as the underlying cause.
However, tobacco-related health issues contribute to heart attacks and disease, often managed in broader treatment plans without explicitly connecting them to smoking in claims data.
In reality, tobacco use impacts costs associated with many chronic conditions. By providing an evidence-based and proven tobacco cessation program to employees, you can lower costs of chronic conditions that are affected by smoking.
For example, people with diabetes have average annual healthcare costs of $19,736, with $12,022 linked directly to diabetes. Smoking and the use of other tobacco products can contribute to high annual healthcare costs for many other conditions including:
- Initial cancer treatment – $41,800
- Stroke – $35,000
- Heart failure – $18,000
- Musculoskeletal disorders such as strains – $17,683
- Coronary heart disease – $13,000
How EX Program helps employers save healthcare dollars
As an HR expert managing healthcare spend through employee benefits, you see first-hand the value of offering programs that work. And EX Program does exactly that, delivering an impressive 4.75x ROI in the first year after program enrollment.
Transparency with our program is key and through our real-time dashboard you get immediate insights into employee progress and program performance. You can easily track metrics like enrollment, quit rate, and engagement, making reporting on your investment to senior leaders easy.
Empowering employees: customized support to quit tobacco
As healthcare costs continue to rise alongside increased costs for chronic conditions, EX Program is the solution to lower hidden costs related to tobacco use. Developed with Mayo Clinic, EX Program gives employees access to:
- Dynamically tailored quit plans by quit status, age, program use, and tobacco use type (including menthol use)
- Convenient live chat coaching with our compassionate tobacco treatment specialists
- 24/7 tips and resources from Mayo Clinic experts and successful quitters in our thriving online community
- Free quit medication delivered to the participant’s home
- Text messaging support tailored to your employees’ needs proven to boost quit outcomes and keep them engaged over time
EX Program is your best strategic partner to tackle hidden healthcare costs of tobacco use and create a healthier, more productive workplace.
For more information on how we can help reduce healthcare costs, visit our employers page or contact us here.
