Health Care Cost | Tobacco Use Cessation Evaluation Measures

Health care costs measures for tobacco-use cessation^1-5

In contrast with the worker productivity costs described above, health care costs are measures of the direct medical expenses of providing employee health care and preventive health programs.

Baseline

• Determine current health care use and costs for conditions where individuals have a higher risk associated with tobacco use such as; heart disease and stroke; tobacco-related cancers including lung, lip, oral cavity, pharynx, esophagus, larynx (voice box), pancreas, cervical, bladder, and kidney; and respiratory illnesses (colds, bronchitis, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)
• Determine costs and use for health care intended to reduce tobacco use, such as outpatient visits, tobacco cessation counseling services hospitalizations, pharmacologic cessation therapies, and medications for tobacco-use related illness and disability
• Assess number of employees who utilize tobacco-use treatment services such as counseling or medications (if provided through health benefits)
• Determine the health care use and costs of current tobacco-use cessation program participants before education and other programs are initiated and after operation of these programs

Process

• Periodic repeats of baseline measures

Outcome

• Assess changes in health care use and costs from baseline
• Assess changes in the number of employees who utilize tobacco-use treatment services (if provided through health benefits)
• Compare health care use and costs of participants in programs for tobacco cessation before education and other programs are initiated and after operation of these programs
• Tobacco smoking increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer deaths and other serious health outcomes. However, these are the end stage results of smoking and measurable differences may not be seen for several years. For this reason it is important to measure earlier outcomes such as the number of employees who quit smoking or decreases in sick days