The December 31st Ventura County Star news report that Community Memorial Health System (CMHS)  will no longer hire people who use tobacco gets my vote for the best New Year’s resolution made by a health care organization.By taking this bold action, CMHS, which runs two hospitals and a network of clinics in west Ventura County, joins but a handful of providers of hospital care in California, if not the nation, to move beyond on-campus smoking bans with this more restrictivepractice.

Public health officials stipulate that our behavior choices, environment, genetics and socioeconomic status are the key determinants of our personal health status. And poor behavior choices, like smoking, are said to account for more than half of our lifetime consumption of medical care.  So, if we are serious about improving our population health status as a strategy for lowering health care costs (and improving personal productivity), then let’s commit now to making the tough decisions needed to educate and motivate ourselves and the communities we serve to adopt healthy lifestyles.

The 2010 federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) helps to move the needle on this strategy. It guarantees preventive health services as an “essential health benefit” and exempts these services from any co-payments an insurer may levy on health plan enrollees.

The PPACA also allows businesses that use employer-based health plans to reduce premiums, co-payments and deductibles for its workers who meet certain wellness thresholds.  These employers may also provide their qualifying workers with enhanced plan benefits. The total value of these rewards may not exceed 30 percent of the cost of the worker’s total coverage, and that cap will be raised to 50 percent in 2014.  Also next year, commercial insurers in 10 states will be allowed to pilot similar wellness programs.  I rather selfishly hope that California is one of the 10.

Similar to a law now in place in California, the PPACA includes provisions to educate us about the nutritional value of the foods we consume when we eat out.  Specifically, all restaurants with 20 or more locations have to provide nutritional information and calorie counts on their menus.

There is more, but the message should be clear.  Let’s get serious about educating and motivating our communities about making healthy lifestyle choices.  Excuse the cliché, but “prevention is the best medicine,” and improving our society’s overall health status is the best strategy for lowering health care cost inflation.