title: Integrating Tobacco Use Treatment Into Practice: Billing and Documentation.
abstract: Balancing population-based efforts to modify the social and environmental factors that promote tobacco dependence with efforts to improve the delivery of case-based treatments is necessary for realizing maximum reductions in the cost and consequences of the disease. Public health antismoking campaigns following the 1964 Surgeon General's report on the health risks of smoking have changed social norms, prevented initiation among youth, and promoted abstinence among the addicted. However, the rate of progress enjoyed to date is unlikely to continue into the coming decades, given that current annual unassisted cessation rates among prevalent smokers remains fairly low. With more than 1 billion patient interactions annually, there is an enormous unrealized capacity for health-care systems to have an effect on this problem. Clinicians report a perceived lack of reimbursement as a significant barrier to full integration of tobacco dependence into health care. A more complete understanding of the coding and documentation requirements for successful practice in this critically important area is a prerequisite to increasing engagement. This paper presents several case-based scenarios illustrating important practice management issues related to the treatment of tobacco dependence in health care.
authors.affiliation: Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; Comprehensive Smoking Treatment Program, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, Philadelphia, PA. Electronic address: frank.tleone@uphs.upenn.edu.
authors.forename: Frank T
authors.initials: FT
authors.lastname: Leone
authors.affiliation: Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; Comprehensive Smoking Treatment Program, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Evers-Casey
authors.affiliation: Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
authors.forename: Mary A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Mulholland
authors.affiliation: Palo Alto Center for Pulmonary Disease Prevention, Palo Alto, CA.
authors.forename: David P L
authors.initials: DPL
authors.lastname: Sachs
mesh_terms: D004282:Documentation; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D012051:Reimbursement Mechanisms / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000191:economics / Q000517:prevention & control; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000628:therapy*
chemical_list: D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution
keywords: addiction; reimbursement; smoking; tobacco