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Pulmonology Coding Alert

Advise Smokers to Quit to Score Preventive Points

Published on Wed Jan 28, 2009

It's not as hard as you think to start benefiting from CMS's incentive plan. Encourage patients to snuff out the nicotine habit and simultaneously be on your way to earning more money in 2009. Measure 115: CMS's Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) has as one of its measures smoking cessation help. To participate in this measure (and earn your bonus), your office must report on the percentage of patients aged 18 years and older who are smokers and who received advice to quit smoking. This measure is to be reported a minimum of once per reporting period for all Medicare patients seen during the reporting period,(whether or not they use tobacco). There is no diagnosis associated with this measure. Why? Performing interventions to control smoking are strategically important because smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the U.S. Moreover, clinical interventions are known to be effective in increasing [...]
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