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Hello everyone, I was hoping to see if anyone has any experience in this area.
When I enrolled in healthcare, I was not a smoker (I had been quit for about 8 months, long enough that my insurance considered me a non-smoker). So I selected NO when it asked. A few weeks ago I relapsed and began smoking again.
My health insurance covers tobacco cessation products (patches, gum, prescription, basically my choice). I worry if I fill one of them that it will trigger the tobacco premium. Since it's long past open enrollment, my opportunity to complete the company's approved tobacco cessation program to waive the fee is over.
What do you think? I really, really want to quit, and I have tried cold turkey so many times in the past and it just doesn't work. Should I go to my doctor and get the cessation products through my insurance? Will the tobacco premium magically show up after I fill it since I'm a smoker now?
Hello everyone, I was hoping to see if anyone has any experience in this area.
When I enrolled in healthcare, I was not a smoker (I had been quit for about 8 months, long enough that my insurance considered me a non-smoker). So I selected NO when it asked. A few weeks ago I relapsed and began smoking again.
My health insurance covers tobacco cessation products (patches, gum, prescription, basically my choice). I worry if I fill one of them that it will trigger the tobacco premium. Since it's long past open enrollment, my opportunity to complete the company's approved tobacco cessation program to waive the fee is over.
What do you think? I really, really want to quit, and I have tried cold turkey so many times in the past and it just doesn't work. Should I go to my doctor and get the cessation products through my insurance? Will the tobacco premium magically show up after I fill it since I'm a smoker now?
Thanks for the advice.
In my experience, quite a few doctors, that I've had, are fairly hip about figuring out how to code a diagnosis and treatment to work inside the insurer's requirements. Ask your doc the question right out. The other thing is that if you are in health insurance yourself (as I am), or if your company has a wellness program, they might even be interested in helping. If your company has a confidential Employee Assistance Program, that could be another resource to try out before you commit to a decision.
That said, if you behave with integrity throughout the process yourself--being clever but not dishonest--that always pays off in the long run. Specifically, an honest man is only proven when honesty is the worst policy; anyone can be honest when it benefits him. So if you're ever asked in a future interview, "Tell me about a time when you had to be honest and there was risk for you" or something similar, this would be a great story to tell.
Hello everyone, I was hoping to see if anyone has any experience in this area.
When I enrolled in healthcare, I was not a smoker (I had been quit for about 8 months, long enough that my insurance considered me a non-smoker). So I selected NO when it asked. A few weeks ago I relapsed and began smoking again.
My health insurance covers tobacco cessation products (patches, gum, prescription, basically my choice). I worry if I fill one of them that it will trigger the tobacco premium. Since it's long past open enrollment, my opportunity to complete the company's approved tobacco cessation program to waive the fee is over.
What do you think? I really, really want to quit, and I have tried cold turkey so many times in the past and it just doesn't work. Should I go to my doctor and get the cessation products through my insurance? Will the tobacco premium magically show up after I fill it since I'm a smoker now?
Thanks for the advice.
Take the high road. Talk to your doctor, get a prescription for Chantex, take advantage of all the cessation products, but act NOW. The increased cost to your health insurance is pennies when weighted against the real, life costs of continuing to smoke.
My grandfather was a five pack a day smoker. He died at 54, horribly, of lung cancer, before I was born. I've always thought that if I could meet one person from history, I would have wanted to meet him. He was a single father in the 1930s, had a lot of debt, a wife who was incapacitated and in TB sanitariums, and not able to help raise their children. He worked several jobs, raised three children to adulthood, taught them great values, and taught them they were loved in a time when men didn't talk about such things.
My father was a four pack a day smoker, went to his father's funeral and quit cold turkey before the service was ended. All of us were raised with my father's hatred of the evils of smoking -- it robbed him of his last remaining parent when he was really barely an adult himself. None of my siblings have ever smoked. My father is 94 today, and there is not a doubt in my mind that he'd be long dead if he kept on smoking.
You've got motivation now to quit. It's a hard addiction to kick. But it can be done. Get all the supports going. You can do it. But do it now, don't wait. The years grow into decades. Don't be haunted by "what I mighta, coulda done."
Hello everyone, I was hoping to see if anyone has any experience in this area.
When I enrolled in healthcare, I was not a smoker (I had been quit for about 8 months, long enough that my insurance considered me a non-smoker). So I selected NO when it asked. A few weeks ago I relapsed and began smoking again.
My health insurance covers tobacco cessation products (patches, gum, prescription, basically my choice). I worry if I fill one of them that it will trigger the tobacco premium. Since it's long past open enrollment, my opportunity to complete the company's approved tobacco cessation program to waive the fee is over.
What do you think? I really, really want to quit, and I have tried cold turkey so many times in the past and it just doesn't work. Should I go to my doctor and get the cessation products through my insurance? Will the tobacco premium magically show up after I fill it since I'm a smoker now?
Thanks for the advice.
Chances are your premiums are set for the year and you will have to re-qualify as a non-smoker during your next enrollment period. It is really a question we can't answer with certainty though. You need to check with HR.
At my company, we do not get names of anyone enrolled in the cessation program, nor do we know who's prescribed what drugs. We only know that someone has signed up.
We don't allow someone to change their tobacco status mid year either. If you worked at my company you wouldn't need to worry.
If you've indicated to your insurance company that you are a non smoker then something comes up whereby you need to make a claim and its discovered you are still smoking i'd presume that would give your insurance company a mighty big loophole to deny you coverage.
Lets face it if you are smoking and you've told your insurance company you dont smoke so as to achieve a lower monthly premium the insurance company could go after you for fraud.If i were you i'd call em up and tell em the story and be prepared to pay smokers premiums until you have quit again for some time..
You could pay for these smoking cessation products out of pocket, most of the Nicorette stuff is over the counter so you wouldnt need to even see a doctor.
My husband died last summer of Kidney Cancer after smoking for nearly 50 years. I recently received a life insurance solicitation for myself and the premiums for a smoker were double that of a non-smoker. It's in your best interest to quit now! My husband spent all our money on cigarettes and left us with no savings or any life insurance and life is about to become very tough for us. If you have a family or plan on having one in the future, you owe it to them not to smoke.
Hello everyone, I was hoping to see if anyone has any experience in this area.
When I enrolled in healthcare, I was not a smoker (I had been quit for about 8 months, long enough that my insurance considered me a non-smoker). So I selected NO when it asked. A few weeks ago I relapsed and began smoking again.
My health insurance covers tobacco cessation products (patches, gum, prescription, basically my choice). I worry if I fill one of them that it will trigger the tobacco premium. Since it's long past open enrollment, my opportunity to complete the company's approved tobacco cessation program to waive the fee is over.
What do you think? I really, really want to quit, and I have tried cold turkey so many times in the past and it just doesn't work. Should I go to my doctor and get the cessation products through my insurance? Will the tobacco premium magically show up after I fill it since I'm a smoker now?
Thanks for the advice.
You can quit. I cold turkey quit. You just don't want to. There is nothing in this world that would make me start smoking again. If I could go back to when I started I would kick my own azz
My grandkids lost their dad at 55 a couple yrs ago...everyone is still in shock .. this man was so in control of so much but his life. He quit when his first child was born but had smoked 30 yrs prior..
Quit those cancer sticks!!!!!
I smoked for 35 years and had a heck of a time quitting,its been 8 years now since i last smoked and i cant remember why it was so hard to give it up as from my current perspective why is the logic of just not smoking anymore so tough an accomplishment.
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