Truth Initiative and Wellable partner to deliver comprehensive smoking cessation resources for employers and health plans

The EX® Program from Truth Initiative® brings smoking cessation to the Wellable network of employee wellness solutions and services

News provided by

Truth Initiative

Feb 26, 2019, 09:17 ET

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The EX Program, a digital quit-smoking and vaping program for employers from Truth Initiative, today announced the expansion of its quit-smoking resources through a partnership with Wellable Inc., a leading wellness technology and services provider. The EX Program and Wellable are partnering to build on their years of experience in bringing leading quit-smoking and well-being solutions to the employer and health plan markets. For the EX Program, this marks the start of an expanded commercial strategy to include best-in-class partners and resellers, and, for Wellable, it's an enhancement to their comprehensive solutions for improving employee health. This is the first quit-smoking and vaping service to be available through the Wellable platform.

Built on years of experience, the EX Program is an innovative employer smoking cessation program offered through Truth Initiative, a national public health organization that is inspiring tobacco-free lives and building a world where anyone can quit.

The financial and health impacts of smoking on employers make it clear that organizations have a need for innovative and integrated approaches to quitting for their employees:

Nearly 70 percent of smokers want to quit.
Fifty-five percent of smokers make a quit attempt annually, yet only seven percent are successful.
One study found that, each year, a smoker can cost an employer nearly $6,000 more than a nonsmoking employee.

Wellable integrates directly with all leading consumer wellness apps and wearable devices so users can benefit from automatic and real-time syncing of wellness data. The EX Program combines evidence-based interventions with one of the longest-running active quit-smoking support networks. Through this integration, Wellable users will gain access to mobile one-on-one coaching with tobacco treatment specialists, peer support from thousands of smokers and ex-smokers in an active online community, and a customized quit plan, including quit medication delivered directly to participants' homes. As a cost-effective alternative to traditional cessation programs, the EX Program is designed to be accessible and flexible, giving smokers a means to quit that also fits into their worklives.

"As the first smoking cessation service offered as part of the Wellable program, we're proud to work with Truth Initiative and its highly successful EX Program to support our users on their tobacco cessation journeys," said Nick Patel, president of Wellable. "Offering the EX Program through Wellable allows us to present tobacco cessation to our customers as part of a comprehensive wellness platform, which includes physical activity, nutrition and many other factors that may be of concern to tobacco users looking to quit."

"Nicotine use is a complex addiction that requires specialized treatment," said Dr. Amanda Graham, senior vice president, Innovations, at Truth Initiative. "We've been successful at developing programs that meet the needs of the hundreds of thousands of smokers who are ready and interested in quitting. Offering the EX Program in the workplace allows employers to leverage the impact of smoking policies and incentives to promote quitting, while also offering smokers a powerful program that they can access anonymously and privately as they tackle a tenacious addiction."

Truth Initiative has a long history of innovation around developing engaging and effective quitting programs. Developed in collaboration with Mayo Clinic, more than 800,000 smokers have enrolled in BecomeAnEX, the platform the EX Program is built on, and research shows that following its quit plan quadruples a tobacco user's chance of quitting, proving the importance of digital resources throughout the quit journey.

Organizations interested in learning more about the EX Program can visit www.theexprogram.com.

For more information on Wellable, visit www.wellable.co

About the EX^® Program
The EX Program is a comprehensive, digital tobacco cessation program designed for employers, health systems and health plans to offer to their employees or members who use tobacco. The program combines the popular quit-smoking planning tools and online community from BecomeAnEX.org, a proven-effective consumer smoking cessation program, with personalized, digital coaching and medication support from tobacco treatment specialists. The EX Program is created by Truth Initiative and developed in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic.

BecomeAnEX has helped more than 800,000 tobacco users over the past eight years, and 93 percent of those say they would recommend the program to a friend. Research has shown that smokers who follow the EX Plan have a four times greater-than-average chance of quitting. To learn how the EX Program can help an organization lower the financial and health burdens of tobacco use, visit theexprogram.com.

About Wellable
Wellable operates next-generation wellness challenges and health content technology platforms and complements these solutions with on-site and virtual services, such as fitness classes, seminars, health coaching and more. The technology's flexibility allows organizations to customize and configure a program to meet their needs and objectives while providing a rich experience for end users. Wellable works with employers and health plans of all sizes and has active users in more than 23 different countries. Visit Wellable online at www.wellable.co.

About Truth Initiative
Truth Initiative is a national public health organization that is inspiring tobacco-free lives and building a culture where youth and young adults reject tobacco. The truth about tobacco and the tobacco industry are at the heart of our proven-effective and nationally recognized, truth^® public-education campaign, our rigorous scientific research and policy studies, and our innovative community and youth engagement programs supporting populations at high risk of using tobacco. The Washington D.C.-based organization, formerly known as Legacy, was established and funded through the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories, and the tobacco industry. To learn more about our work speaking, seeking and spreading the truth about tobacco, visit truthinitiative.org.

SOURCE Truth Initiative