Crown Laboratories gives ultimatum to employees: No smoking - or else
Times-News.com ^ | 12-18-05 | TERESA HICKS



JOHNSON CITY - No ifs, ands or "butts" - smokers looking for employment are no longer welcome at Crown Laboratories.

It's bold, but that's the new policy at the Johnson City-based company that manufactures Blue Lizard sunscreen. Not only that, but current employees who smoke, dip or chew have 12 months to give up the habit or they will have to start paying 100 percent of the premium for their health insurance.

"This is the way that health care is going to go in the future," said Jeff Bedard, the company's chief executive officer. "They're going to penalize people who choose to not take care of their own health."

Smokers at his company have been offered access to a smoking cessation program run by a local physician group. The program is available at no charge to the employee, and it includes individual counseling plus supplies like nicotine patches, gum and inhalers.

By June, employees who are still using tobacco will be required to pay half of the monthly premium for their health insurance, and those who haven't quit by January 2007 must pay the entire premium if they want to continue participating in the company's insurance plan. Tobacco-free employees are not required to pay any of the premium.

Bedard said the tobacco policy is part of a broader effort to control insurance costs for the business.

"The costs associated with health care are just going astronomically through the roof," he said. "We've experienced three years in a row where we've had 30 percent health care increases."

The company currently employs 46 people, six of whom smoke.

"The cost of insurance is $100 higher per employee, per month, due to having to cover smokers," Bedard said.

Bedard is hoping to reduce costs not only by eliminating smokers from the insurance plan, but also by improving the overall health status of the rest of his employees through a companywide wellness program managed by Wilson Pharmacy and Home Health. The program is mandatory for everyone on Crown's insurance policy, and it is designed to motivate employees to adopt good health habits like exercising and eating a balanced diet.

After an initial evaluation, each employee is assigned a number between one and 24 that represents his or her overall health status. Employees are evaluated twice a year and monitored for factors like blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides and blood sugar. That same blood test will also check for nicotine levels, Bedard said, which is one way the company will enforce its smoking policy.

For every three-point increase in an employee's wellness number, he or she will be granted a paid day off. Then at the end of the year, employees who have improved their overall health status will receive a $500 American Express gift card.

"The reason I did the time off tied to the wellness is that if the employees aren't here in the plant, I want them to be able to enjoy the time off and not lay in bed sick. If they take a day off, I'd rather have them do something fun and recharge their batteries than take a day off because they're sick," said Bedard.

Employees who start out near the top of the wellness scale aren't penalized if they don't have any room for improvement, he added. As long as they stay above 20, they'll continue to reap the rewards.

Bedard said similar wellness programs across the country have been shown to provide an attractive return on investment for the companies that implement them.

"What most of the wellness programs are showing is that for every dollar you invest, you typically will get back anywhere between $1.50 to $4. That's in productivity in the workplace, the number of sick days that the employees don't have to take, and then the reduced cost of health care," he said.

Bedard said he believes the new policy - especially the crackdown on smoking - is also more in line with the image his company wants to project.

"We're a pharmaceutical company, and we're a health care company. We provide products that keep people from getting skin cancers," he said. "It's hard for us as a company to go out and promote to the world that you shouldn't go to tanning beds, and you shouldn't lay out in the sun, and you need to protect your body when I've got people hanging out in the back smoking area lighting up cigarettes.

"It's a real moral dilemma. So we made the decision that if we're going to be a health care company, we need to be a healthy company and we need to promote wellness."

Of course, not everyone is happy about the new program.

"There have been a few people who have been concerned about us prying into their personal lives," Bedard said. "(They think), ‘Is it really your business if I smoke at home, or is it really your business if I smoke, period?' And my answer is, it's not my business unless it costs the company money. As CEO of this company, I've got to be a good steward of its financial health. And when the financial health of this company is impacted by a habit that I don't see as necessary to anyone's life, then yes, I do have that right."

Robert Broyles, a building maintenance assistant at Crown and one of the six smokers on staff, said some of his co-workers have told him they would rather quit their jobs than quit smoking.

"I've heard a lot of negative comments about it," he said. "I think it's a good idea to motivate people to get healthier, but it's getting into their privacy too. There's a good side and a bad side."

But with a policy so strict and all-encompassing, Bedard said he is prepared for some resistance.

"I've told them, ‘Look, this is the policy. If I lose you as an employee, I'm sorry that you've made the choice to smoke versus work here. But that's the policy that we've got to live with.' So far, no one's quit, but then of course it doesn't go into full effect until January 1st," he said.

Broyles, who officially quit smoking at 9 a.m. Friday, is one employee who plans to stick with his job and nix the tobacco. He spent his first smoke-free day with a Nicotrol Inhaler in his shirt pocket instead of a pack of cigarettes.

"I think it's an invasion of privacy, but it will help people in the long run. It will help me if I can do it. I'm going to give it the old college try," he said. "I've been wanting to quit for a few years, but I never had this sort of motivation. I thought, ‘This is it - I'm finally going to do it.'"

At least the company allows the employee to opt out of coverage, but no mention of giving the employee the momey it saves on their premiums.

Most smokers are questioning their use of tobacco, these programs allow them to try. I quit and after three years I returned. I found the benefits outwayed the costs of not having cigarettes. Most people suseptible to the propoganda do not realise what tobacco is doing for them, I did, I researched the alternatives and found cigarettes less expensive. In terms of my health I know what the benefits are to me and what it costs. I take antioxidents at bedtime to allow my body their use while I am asleep. I eat a lot of brocalli to repair any damage to my lungs.

Perhaps we should do more to educate the populace about what steps can be taken to counteract the effects of smoking.

It would also be interesting in a company this size to look at their loss experience to determine what their actual costs are, by whom, and whether or not smoking played a part in those costs at all. It would also be interesting to review the data on the group a year later to determine what the company spent and saved as result of this policy.

As the population ages, there is bound to be an effect on health costs, the most dedicated employees of any organization usually neglect their health, families, and personal life for the benefit of the company. No studies reflect that employee X arrived early each day, stayed late, worked on weekends, and never took the time for a vacation. These employees are the ones who make a company succeed, when something happens to them that vacancy is the first to show up on the bottom line. People just always took for granted that employee X would take care of it, when they don't the company suffers.

quote:

take antioxidents at bedtime to allow my body their use while I am asleep. I eat a lot of brocalli to repair any damage to my lungs.

I've been doing the same thing for 30 years. Vitamins A,E, & D, right? Also have taken Vitamin C , B complex, and recently added Saw Palmetto (good for the prostate), DHEA, and Royal Jelly.

Why don't we have a company owner who smokes a legal product decree that all new employees be smokers and existing employees must be smokers within one year or be terminated. The creative people are smokers. The free advertising in the media would be well worth making the point.

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Originally posted by BostonRay:
Why don't we have a company owner who smokes a legal product decree that all new employees be smokers and existing employees must be smokers within one year or be terminated. The creative people are smokers. The free advertising in the media would be well worth making the point.

That would work, but it seems the only bigots in society are anti-smokers. LOL

The businessman who made such a ruling would be living in the gutter shortly. Only polically correct discrimination is allowed. This is what the bans in work places is all about.

Concerned about health? You better believe it: FDA Warning

quote:

Originally posted by topal:
Concerned about health? You better believe it: FDA Warning

I guess healthy employees is more important than healthy customers. LOL

Got a good laugh today. I'm watching CNN and a program on quiting smoking with the head of the CDC smoking & health is on. The subtitle blares out "30 PERCENT OF ALL DEATHS FROM CANCER ARE DUE TO SMOKING"....ok then 70% of all deaths from cancer are caused from NOT SMOKING. duh! The source was listed as the ACS. Last I checked the 30-70 ratio was just about the ratio of smokers to non-smokers. This means and proves that we are all going to die....someday. LOL!!!