Legislation Title: The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act) 2009
Agency Responsible for Implementation
The main federal body charged with the responsibility of implementing this piece of legislation on tobacco control is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Implementation here involves the types of sanctions and procedures that are inserted in legislation to aid in the enforcement process. According to Healthy People (2010), tobacco use or dependency prevention and control among Americans is important given that tobacco has been proven to cause illnesses such as cancer, lung and heart diseases, premature birth, asthma attacks, ear infection, respiratory infections, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and eventually death. All these, according to this source, are preventable through appropriate tobacco control policy implementation programs. The Department of Health and Human Service (2010) has identified some of the most effective tobacco control policy programs as being the adoption of tobacco smoke free policies, anti-tobacco marketing media campaigns, making tobacco cessation options more affordable and accessible, using science or evidence based control approaches such as monitoring and surveillance, tobacco manufacturing regulation and make available insurance cover through healthcare insurance and healthcare services organizations. The CDC (2006) also states that the most effective tobacco con troll interventions include individual treatment, reduction in costs of tobacco treatment for patients, changes in health systems supporting clinical intervention and community policy (p. 21).
Enforcement
Enforcement is the process through which certain actions or measures are taken by prescribed officials at the local and state levels to monitor the enforcement of a policy contained in legislation. The main agency charged with the enforcement of the Tobacco Control Act is the Food and Drug Administration agency whose roles among others include controlling the manufacturing, distribution and marketing of tobacco products in a bid to secure the health and future of American citizens. As an enforcement measure, the agency puts restriction on sales and marketing of tobacco to the youth, requires manufacturers of tobacco products to have warning labels on them and also tobacco producing companies to disclose the type of ingredients that are contained in tobacco products. Moreover, as an enforcement action, the FDA subjects the tobacco processing and manufacturing facilities to annual compliance inspections and also prescribes the type of ingredients that manufacturers of tobacco may include in their tobacco products. According to Reddy, Yadav, Arora and Nawar (2012), the best way to ensure successful enforcement of tobacco control policies would be to be in innovative partner with global the global tobacco control community and organizations such as the WHO and also integrating these efforts into development and health agendas of countries. As Healthy People (2010) observes, the best ways of enforcing tobacco use control policies in US are to fully fund programs on tobacco control, raise tobacco product prices, come up with extensive smoke-free regulations, control or restrict access to tobacco products, reduce or regulate tobacco promotion adverts, assist and encourage tobacco use quitting and implement campaigns by the media discouraging tobacco use and sensitizing people on its health impacts.
Implementation
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the bureau charged with overseeing the implementation of the Tobacco Control Act. Examples of implementation clauses are those that talk about fines, licenses and other penalties related to violation of the provisions of an Act. The FDA regulates the sale of products of tobacco in order to protect public health by barring excessive use or abuse of tobacco and its products. This agency involves the public in its implementation process in a bid to ensure effectiveness of its strategies and policies aimed at improving and protecting public health from the adverse impacts of tobacco products. For instance, the FDA publishes proposed tobacco regulations for public comment and information, it con ducts public hearings and meetings to discuss the implementation process success and challenges, and issues guidance documents. Apart from this agency, however, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also helps in the implementation process by coming up with programs that aim at preventing or reducing the use of tobacco among Americans. The FDA also awards grants and tax rebates to tobacco companies that continually comply with its regulations and policies on tobacco use. The FDA also carries out the health policy implementation mandate in relation to tobacco control by coming up with smoke-free policies, promoting tobacco cessation and coming up with local and statewide programs that help tobacco users or addicts to quit and also prevent people from developing tobacco use addiction. Moreover, according to the CDC (2007), the best way to implement tobacco control policies is to promote health systems change, expand insurance coverage for tobacco cessation, promote tobacco cessation intervention programs in states, encourage and assist users of tobacco to quit. Such intervention approaches, the center argues, will go a long way in cutting down on tobacco-related illnesses and deaths besides reducing the cost of health care.
Impact on Health Service Organizations
The Tobacco Control Act has tremendous impacts on the operations of health service organizations and hence it is important for health care managers to know how the legislation and its related implementation are likely tom affect the way they operate. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) (2012), managed healthcare organizations can make use of the concept of systems change in which they come up with and implement certain strategies that aim at treating tobacco dependence. The CDC (2006) states that tobacco use control policies affect the operations of healthcare service organizations by increasing clinical time or stress, increased healthcare costs, lack of reimbursement for evidence-based tobacco treatments, staffing problems in their tobacco cessation program efforts and quality of care challenges. Examples of strategies are the implementation of tobacco-user identification system, provision of tobacco dependence treatment by their staff, promotion of healthcare facility policies tobacco dependence treatment services, and the provision of resources, supporting and providing training and feedback on tobacco dependency control This legislation affects health services organizations in my state in the following ways:
Requiring them to screen patients for traces of tobacco before offering treatment
Requiring health care service organizations to provide insurance for patients or ensure they have covers under the Affordable Care Act.
Reduces the number of people seeking medical assistance from impacts of tobacco use hence affecting their financial costs
Regulating their tobacco related drug labelling and sale
Being subject to tobacco control policy compliance checks by the FDA
Require health service organizations to reduce healthcare costs due to tobacco control intervention programs and policies by the FDA and other agencies.
Resources
Examples of resources that a health organization may utilize to find updates on the impacts of the tobacco control policies on them include the Surgeon’s Report that has the relevant data on various health conditions affecting the population in a given region, medical journals, WHO annual reports and medical reports by the Department of Human and Health Science.
References
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2012). Systems change: Treating Tobacco use and dependence. Retrieved January 25, 2015, from http://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/clinicians-providers/guidelines-recommendations/tobacco/decisionmakers/systems/index.html
Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. (2007). Best practices for comprehensive tobacco control systems: Cessation interventions. Retrieved January 25, 2016, from http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/stateandcommunity/best_practices/pdfs/2014/sectionA-III.pdf
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2006). A Practical Guide to Working with Health-Care Systems on Tobacco-Use Treatment. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health. Retrieved January 25, 2016, from http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/quit_smoking/cessation/practical_guide/pdfs/practical_guide.pdf
Healthy People. (2010). Tobacco use: Why is preventing tobacco use important? Retrieved January 25, 2016, from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/tobacco-use
Reddy, K. S., Yadav, A., Arora, M., & Nazar, G. P. (2012). Integrating tobacco control into health and development agendas. Tobacco Control Journal, 21, 281-286. doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2011-050419
