Because both the U.S. Surgeon General and the American Psychiatric Association have issued statements indicating that smoking is addictive and that addiction is a medical condition, employers have to amend their policies regarding health insurance discounts for employees who do not smoke. However, the U.S. Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services has determined that barring smokers from those same discounts is discriminatory, so employers must offer the same insurance rewards to smokers if they meet reasonable alternative standards.
Availability
Employees must be offered an opportunity to attempt to meet the criteria for a health insurance discount or reward at least once each year, according to Buck Consultants, a labor consulting firm. If the discount is for not smoking, then the employee must have options to qualify in some other way if he cannot quit. He now has the right to inform his employer of this and his employer is obligated to provide him with an alternative way to receive the discount. The alternative does not have to be established up front, but an employer must inform his employees that one will be made available in the event that an employee decides to request it.
Classes
The most common alternative offered by employers is to require an employee to attend a smoking cessation class, according to the Groom Law Firm. This might take the form of an actual class, or sitting through 12 hours of video instruction over the course of a year. If an employee attends the class or completes the video and finds that he still can't quit smoking, the new HIPAA law states that he can still receive the same discounts as other employees if it is unreasonably difficult for him to comply, according to Buck Consultants. The U.S. Department of Labor indicates that an employer must either provide the video or the class or reimburse his employee for attending one.
Smoking Cessation Products
Employers must also offer insurance discounts and rewards to an employee who smokes if she provides proof of an attempt to quit through any acceptable smoking cessation product, such as nicotine replacement patches, gums or lozenges.
Doctor's Note
An employee now has the right to provide his employer with a written recommendation from his physician that it would be too difficult for him or would be medically inadvisable for him to quit smoking due to some other health issue.
Waiver
Employers can opt out of paying for smoking cessation programs on behalf of their smoking employees by simply issuing the individual a waiver of the health standard that is behind the discount, according to the Groom Law Firm. However, if this is done, it should be done across the board for all smoking employees or an employer might face other discrimination issues.
