Tobacco products pose a serious health threat in New Jersey, and cost the health insurance industry millions of dollars annually. Commissioner Christine Grant of New Jersey's Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) has requested that the Department of Banking and Insurance (DoBI) assist her in promoting new DHSS initiatives to help people who want to quit smoking. The purpose of this Bulletin is to enlist New Jersey health insurers to help promote the DHSS initiatives.

DHSS is providing two new free services that are available to consumers to help them kick the tobacco habit -- New Jersey Quitline (8-866-NJ-STOPS or 1-866-657-8677) and New Jersey Quitnet (www.nj.quitnet.com). New Jersey Quitline provides individualized telephone-based counseling and referral programs for people who want to quit smoking. New Jersey Quitnet offers personalized support and referrals online. Health insurers can provide insureds with the Quitline toll-free number and Quitnet website address by including this information in policy forms and other documents and correspondence. To further promote these services, insurers can hyperlink their own websites to New Jersey Quitnet, and include the New Jersey Quitline/New Jersey Quitnet logo and access information on certain documents. The address for the link and logo instructions is "nj.quitnet.com/images/qnlogo.jtml".

For additional information on any of the above services, insurers may contact Edward Kazimir at DHSS's Tobacco Control Program at (609) 984-3317.

I strongly urge all health insurers to help support this important program. Your participation will help attack the single most preventable cause of death and disease in New Jersey.

3/25/01 /s/ Karen L. Suter