Owens Corning Case Study

Background

Beyond offering innovative building materials products and services
Owens Corning takes an active role in supporting and improving the quality of life for all its employees and family members. Owens Corning, a 20,000 person home building systems and glass-fiber materials company, has focused on tobacco awareness since the mid 1990's. The corporate headquarters in Toledo, Ohio went smoke free in 1994. Several company plants and facilities followed throughout the next decade. Since manufacturing populations tend to have higher tobacco prevalence than the national average, tobacco use has remained a major health focus for the company. From 1996 to 2003, an internal healthy lifestyle credit of $10 off payroll healthcare contributions, although effective, did not have the widespread impact that the company had hoped to achieve. After much planning and consideration, Owens Corning decided to implement a comprehensive national tobacco cessation program to help its employees and family members.

Challenge

With a multi-site, multi-faceted group of employees, Owens Corning needed to find a tobacco treatment program that would reach all 346 of its worksite locations. The company needed a program that would cater to its many types of employees, from manufacturing to sales, salaried to hourly. Owens Corning was looking for a national player in tobacco treatment – an organization that could provide a one-stop-shop solution for the company so it would not need to select and manage state by state programs or different programs for different populations. Most importantly, Owens Corning wanted to ensure that each group of employees received the same quality of care and service, no matter where they were located.

Solution

Owens Corning chose to partner with Free & Clear® to offer a comprehensive tobacco cessation program. Free & Clear's Quit For Life™ Program represented the national "one-stop-shop" approach that Owens Corning needed. All U.S. based Owens Corning employees and their eligible covered dependents over the age of 18 would have access to the program. Even if an employee had waived medical insurance coverage, the employee would still be offered the Quit For Life Program. Whether in Ohio or Texas, whether a salaried or hourly employee, tobacco treatment would still be available.

Figuring out how best to offer the program became the top priority for Owens Corning. If they were going to ask employees to quit tobacco, an addiction that would take dedication and effort to overcome, the management team decided the right thing to do was to offer Free & Clear's Quit For Life™ Program completely free to all employees and their covered dependents. Owens Corning understood the research showing that financial barriers to enrollment and participation are the primary reasons that people do not join tobacco cessation programs. The company chose to remove all financial barriers for its employees and their covered dependents; including costs for NRT, co-pays associated with accessing bupropion and all counseling fees.

Since the cost of the patch and gum products was fully covered, Owens Corning opted to have Free & Clear directly ship these nicotine replacement products to participants, if deemed appropriate. This took the burden off of the participants and the health plans. However a number of participants use bupropion, which requires a prescription and possible co-pays, to help them quit tobacco. Some HMO plans covered bupropion for tobacco cessation, others did not. Owens Corning and Free & Clear worked with two health plans and over 15 HMO plans to coordinate the access and reimbursement of bupropion for those participants, who this medication was best suited for, creating free and equal access for all participants, no matter which health plan they were covered under.

Once Owens Corning had removed all financial barriers to enrollment and participation, they went one step further, offering employees a tobacco-free premium discount. Employees who signed up for the tobacco-free premium discount, enrolled during December of 2005 and committed to remain tobacco free during 2006 began recieving a $40 per month discount off of their health insurance premiums. The discount incentive was part of a large communication effort that included emails, mailings, announcements in the company benefit newsletter and involvement from the worksite plant nurses.

The tobacco-free discount necessitated that Owens Corning further define its tobacco-free policy. The company decided that in order to claim that it was tobacco-free, employees would have to agree to consume zero tobacco – not even a cigar on New Year's Eve. Any employee falsifying the statement that they are tobacco-free in an effort to receive the discount, yet continuing to use tobacco, would face disciplinary action up to and including termination. The discount truly implied the tobacco-free lifestyle that Owens Corning had been seeking.

Results

Owens Corning estimates approximately 35% of its U.S. based employees use tobacco. The company's year one goal is to reach 10% employee/dependent participation. Owens Corning had 453 people enroll in the Free & Clear Quit For Life Program, meeting half of its annual goal in just one month! Human resource and benefits administrators from Owens Corning state that although enrollment was initially affected by the $40 incentive, they have since been pleasantly surprised by steady participation in the program. A number of employees have even registered in the program with a spouse, despite the fact that the dependents of employee are not eligible to receive the Owens Corning tobacco-free discount.

Financially, it is still early for Owens Corning to analyze a return on investment. According to industry data, Owens Corning should save about $5,717 per quitter in excess medical expenditures¹, smoking breaks², absenteeism³ and second hand smoke⁴.

Anecdotally, employees have shared their own stories of success, including one individual who shared his story for the company's benefits newsletter stating a positive quitting experience and improved breathing. He added: "I regret that I smoked for so long, but there's no regret about being smoke-free."

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