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Under a new policy believed to be the first of its kind for a hospital in Massachusetts, Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport last month began testing prospective employees for nicotine use. Those who fail the screening can forget about a job. The rejected candidates are told to reapply in six months ― if they’ve quit puffing by then. “As a health care facility, we believe it’s our right to say we don’t want any smoke in our building or on our employees,marlboro cigarettes,’’ said Deb Chiaravalloti, spokeswoman for Anna Jaques.
“We are taking a stand, saying that if you smoke you cannot work here because we are promoting good health. We want to have as healthy an environment as we can for our employees and patients.’’ The hospital’s new hiring policy is part of a national trend as a growing number of private companies,newport 100s cigarettes, citing concerns about the health and productivity of their employees as well as spiraling health insurance costs, strive to influence workers’ personal habits. Nationwide, roughly 63 percent of companies now offer a cash bonus to employees who complete a health risk questionnaire, up from 35 percent in 2009, and more than half offer incentives for employee participation in health improvement programs,marlboro cigarettes supplier, according to a national survey by the consulting firm Hewitt Associates.
At Anna Jaques, employees who voluntarily take and pass four health screenings ― for blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index, and nicotine ― receive a $500 deposit to their health saver account each year they pass the tests; about 47 percent of the hospital’s 1,000-person workforce participates in the program. As premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance balloon ― swell ing 8 percent this year after a 7 percent jump in 2009,marlboro cigarettes wholesale, according to a national survey conducted by Hewitt Associates in partnership with the Business Roundtable,newport cigarettes, an association of CEOs of leading US businesses ― companies are trying to influence workers’ behavior with financial incentives and penalties.
Often, such initiatives target smokers,cheap marlboro cigarettes, in part because of the high cost of treating smoking-related illnesses. A 2006 study by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health found that smoking deals a $6 billion blow to the Commonwealth’s economy each year in health care costs and lost productivity. Faced with such sobering statistics, a growing number of companies are imposing higher premiums for smokers or offering incentives for kicking the nicotine habit, according to Susan K. Lessack, a labor and employment law attorney with Pepper Hamilton. Other employers, including Anna Jaques, are going a step farther and eliminating smoke ― and sometimes smokers ― from the workplace altogether.