Posted on 12/29/2011 4:54:10 PM PST by Born Conservative
Health care provider announces that tobacco users will not get jobs.
Smokers need not apply.
That’s the message Geisinger Health System is sending to future job applicants.
Starting Feb. 1, Geisinger will no longer hire applicants who use tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars and chewing or smokeless tobacco, the health system announced on Wednesday.
“Geisinger is joining dozens of hospitals and medical organizations across the country that are encouraging healthier living, decreasing absenteeism and reducing health care costs by adopting strict policies that make smoking a reason to turn away job applicants,” Richard Merkle, chief human resources officer, said in a press release.
Merkle said non-nicotine hiring policies are legal in 20 states, including Pennsylvania.
Current employees are not affected by the new policy. Geisinger isn’t the first local employer to implement a no-nicotine hiring policy.
Anthony Matrisciano, a spokesman for Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania, said the health insurance provider implemented such a policy at the beginning of this year. Blue Cross also prohibits employees from smoking within 200 feet of the building.
Wyoming Valley Health Care System and Community Medical Center in Scranton did not return calls inquiring about their smoking policies.
Amy Brayford, vice president of Human Resources for Geisinger, said saving money on health care costs related to smoking was not the impetus behind the hiring policy. “The driver for it is … improving the health of our employee population and creating a healthy environment for our patients and employees,” Brayford said.
Geisinger will spend nearly $100 million on employee health care and prescription drug coverage for its nearly 15,000 employees in 2012. There were more than 2,800 new hires in 2011.
While Geisinger hopes to see health care savings in the long run, Brayford said implementing the policy will cost Geisinger money because a nicotine test will be added to the routine pre-employment drug screenings.
During the hiring process, all applicants – including those seeking full- and part-time positions, flex, volunteers and students enrolled in Geisinger-based schools – will be tested.
The urine test will include screening for cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, snuff, nicotine patches, nicotine gum and cigars. The test only detects active nicotine users, not those exposed to second-hand smoke.
Applicants who test positive for nicotine can re-apply in six months; a list of smoking cessation resources will be provided.
Brayford said there are no plans to randomly test new employees – or any employees – for nicotine or any other drugs.
“You have to have a trust relationship with employees, that is very important to us,” said Lynn Miller, executive vice president and chief administrative officer, Geisinger Clinical Enterprise.
As a reward for healthier living and incentive for current employees who smoke to quit smoking, Geisinger will offer discounts on employee contributions to their health insurance plans for non-smokers beginning in 2013. Matrisciano said Blue Cross makes contributions to employees’ health care savings accounts when they achieve certain health milestones in the company’s wellness program, such good cholesterol and blood pressure levels and not smoking. The accounts can be used to pay for things such as co-pays on doctor visits and prescription drugs.
Miller said the decision to implement the no-nicotine hiring policy was well thought out, as was the health system’s decision to make all Geisinger campuses tobacco-free in 2007.
Marcy Marshall, Geisinger director of communications, public relations and marketing, said Geisinger has disciplined and even fired employees for smoking on campus.
The American Lung Association, the American Cancer Society and the World Health Organization all have similar hiring policies, and there are hospitals in Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas that do not hire smokers, Marshall said.
Julie Kissinger, spokeswoman for the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, said such policies are a growing trend, statewide and nationally.
He and Bill both smoked on the roof.
Take a look at the roof of the White House sometimes. There are two things that look like old large chimneys.
One of them is a smoking room, the other is full of guns and ammo.
FDR and Congress set 62 years to be the age of S.S. (Don’t tell anybody that the average lifespan was short of that at the time.)
The FED can get bent.
Don’t call me a hypocrite.
I do support businesses’ rights to choose who they serve. The point here though is that one group is being singled out while others (who are actually more high risk) are not all in the name of political correctness.
I learned in grad school from a nursing professor that only 15% of smokers will actually develop cancer. Where he got that stat & if it’s true I don’t know but it’s interesting.
By the way, radon gas causes more lung cancer than smokies (think Dana Reeve). So if Geisinger wants to be consistent, then they should only hire non-smokers who have a radon reduction system in their house.
It’s my religious right and duty to take a little wine for my stomachs sake. That’d be meddling to interfere.
I did a 3 month rotation at Geisinger during grad school. Their cafeteria served the usual fatty, fried, greasy processed crap. That was the only place around to eat. Wonder if they will promote better nutrition since they claim to want to foster a healthy environment for employees & patients.
Bunch of PC hypocrites.
Okay, then you should have no problem with this.
So if Geisinger wants to be consistent, then they should only hire non-smokers who have a radon reduction system in their house.
If they have the right to choose then they also have the right to be inconsistent.
Right?
Lots of places do this already. Go work somewhere else if you don’t like it. Private business.
Thanks! Buy season one of “Lost in Space”. You get the pilot and the same darn thing! LOL!
My company has a NO-TOBACCO policy. Yea right.....
Back when I was a manager at a meat packing plant I stopped hiring smokers because I couldn’t ever keep them in the plant. They were always out on the loading dock having a smoke.
Haven’t you heard, meat is murder. Better ban it.
Buzz cuts, pocket protectors, cigarettes and coffee with scotch in the evenings.
Many engineers out there died of heart attacks in their 30's back in those days, from the stress.
They have since banned “trans fats” in all of their cafeterias. No more Middleswarth chips...
It’s their choice. Only idiot libs would boycott or attempt to force them to hire people that they don’t want to hire.
NHS the 3rd largest employer on the PLANET...
to cover a lousy 50 million people...talk about bloated bureaucracy!
(#1 is the Chinese Army,# 2 is the India Railway system)
After a few years of Barrycare, I bet it will be 2nd.
You don’t go to the bar to improve your health?
I won’t drink to that.
We used to get hilarious letters from those folks. We posted them up on the bulletin board for everyone to laugh at.
Ever notice that you don’t see signs in businesses that say “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone” anymore.
Its because business no longer has that right unless uncle government agrees.
Personally I think a business should be able to refuse service to anyone for any reason. If the owner doesn’t like blacks, let him refuse to serve them, chances are he won’t be in business for long but that’s his choice.
As far as smoking is concerned, its seldom the wish of a company to refuse to hire smokers. Its either pressure from an insurer or government. In lots of counties here in Michigan, you can’t even smoke on the property of businesses and that’s the law not a choice.
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