Health insurance provider Humana starts testing new hires for nicotine use

TAMPA - People who have not yet "kicked the habit" should not apply for one of over 100 open positions at a company in Arizona.

Starting July 1, Humana Inc. says it will no longer hire any people who use any tobacco products including cigarettes, pipes, chewing tobacco and cigars.

The health insurance provider told our sister station KNXV it will no longer hire smokers at any of its five Arizona locations. The company employs more than 1,500 workers in the greater Phoenix area.

New hires at Humana will have to undergo not only a drug test, but a nicotine test as part of the hiring process.

"We're an organization that is going to promote behavior and lifestyle and if we don't do it who will?" said Jeff Chicaots, regional vice president for Humana. "If you're found positive for nicotine we will not be offering you a position."

But if you're hired and then start smoking Humana says it will give you a chance to become smoke free again. Just like any current employees who smoke, Chicaots says they'll have to go through the company's mandatory program designed to help people quit smoking.

Humana says it's already implemented a similar program in Ohio in 2009, and they say legally they have the right to do it in Arizona.

"It's not an issue of discriminating against smokers; we know that smoking is the largest cause of preventable diseases in the United States," said Chicaots.

Current tobacco users at Humana offices in Arizona will be required to go through the company's mandatory smoking cessation program to keep their jobs.

Humana says they may expand the smoking ban to employees in other states, but the company has not made such plans public.

However, Humana's corporate headquarters employees in Lexington, Kentucky, will not be affected. Kentucky is among a number of states with a law protecting smokers as a "protected class." The statute makes it illegal for employers to discriminate against people for using tobacco.

According to human resource managers in Florida we spoke to, the sunshine state does not have a law declaring smokers a "protected class." In fact, for a few years the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office has had a policy in place to not knowingly hire tobacco users.

Humana has several offices throughout the Tampa Bay area. It may just be a matter of time before the health insurance provider's current local employees and job applicants will have a decision to make: quit smoking or look elsewhere for work.

Information from KNXV was used in this article.