Indiana ranks among the worst states nationally when it comes to opioid use disorder – with drug overdoses in 2014 claiming more than 1,100 lives and costing the state $1.4 billion. But this year, we also may be one of the best positioned places to tackle the opioid epidemic by addressing its root causes and changing the way our state helps people overcome addiction. Two recent developments – one at the state level and one in Indianapolis – signal the momentum for addressing the challenge: In January, Republican Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb created a cabinet-level position charged with addressing Indiana’s drug epidemic, underscoring the urgency of the problem. Democratic Mayor […]

Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. Public policies like higher cigarette taxes and expanded access to evidence-based cessation treatment can help lower smoking rates in Indianapolis and across the state. But employers looking to help their employees quit and improve their health today have a number of tools already available, beyond these longer-term policy efforts. Take the experience of two Fortune 500 companies who used incentives to help employees quit. In 2004, General Electric launched a program that offered employees up to $750 if they quit smoking for 12 months. To test the impact, GE randomly offered the incentive to some […]