Seeking to improve worker health as well as the bottom line, more U.S. employers are paying for smoking-cessation programs for employees, the New York Times reported Oct. 26.

About one in three firms with 200 employees or more offer stop-smoking interventions as part of their benefits plans, and the rate is even higher among larger firms. "Tobacco cessation has been the hot topic for the last year," said Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health, a group representing larger employers; 58 percent of members now offer smoking cessation, Darling said.

Companies say spending $900 or so on smoking cessation makes far more sense than paying the extra $16,000 in lifetime medical bills generated by the typical smoker. Smokers also tend to be absent more from work and less productive when they are on the job.

United Parcel Service, which spends $2.6 billion on employee healthcare annually, began offering smoking cessation in February. Union Pacific Railroad said its stop-smoking program has helped cut the smoking rate among its employees from 40 percent in the 1990s to 17 percent today.

Experts say that some companies are adding smoking-cessation coverage even as they cut back on other health benefits. Employers typically contract with large regional or national prevention providers, such as Free and Clear or Healthways, the latter the owner of the online stop-smoking support community Quitnet.