You will notice that the smoking status fields in your templates have changed.  Fields have been added to meet the specificity requirements of Meaningful Use in 2015.  These fields will not autofill from visits prior to 2015 and they must be addressed for each visit.  We will detail the 3 sections of smoking status below.

1. The first is the Tobacco Use Screening.  If a patient indicates that they have ever smoked, the "Tobacco Use Screening" item must be selected AND one of the resulting items must be checked.  If the patient has never smoked, the blank radio button "--" should be selected.

2. The Smoking Status section contains several options, one of which must be checked.  If indicating that the patient has ever smoked, you must select one of the options for "Smoked Per Day".  The "Unknown If Ever Smoked" selection should NOT be used except in extremely rare instances.

3. If your practice provides smoking cessation education, you should document this in the third section, Cessation Counseling and Intervention.  Here, you can indicate what materials were given to the patient, referral information, or indicate that cessation education was not done.  If your practice does not provide smoking cessation education, you can leave the default options selected, indicating that it was not discussed.

Ware Langhorne & Associates, Inc. is dedicated to helping physicians meet their meaningful use requirements. If you have questions on this or any other Meaningful Use items, please contact us immediately. Our official e-mail address for Meaningful Use is MU@warelanghorne.com or you can contact Debbie Keeton at 804-281-3333.