Georgia State University News Hub: Businesses Levy Employee Tobacco Surcharges, Don’t Aid In Ending Use

“Nearly half of small businesses that levied tobacco surcharges from their employees failed to offer tobacco cessation counseling as required by law, Georgia State University economist Michael Pesko and his coauthors found in the first study to look at tobacco surcharges in the small-group marketplace since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) took effect. In 2016, 16 percent of small businesses used tobacco surcharges, with 47 percent of these businesses failing to provide the required tobacco cessation counseling. Another 14 percent of the employers who used tobacco surcharges did so in states that don’t allow them. Pesko and his colleagues—Jaskaran Bain at Weill Cornell Medical College, (Johanna) Catherine Maclean at Temple University and Benjamin Lê Cook at Harvard University—found employers in the service and blue-collar industries, as well those with a larger percentage of older workers, were more likely to be noncompliant with ACA rules concerning when tobacco surcharges can be levied.” Read the rest of the article at the Georgia State University News Hub.