Chronic Conditions and ETOH intake and tobacco abuse?

Scott5587

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Hello all :)


I came across an issue that I have not dealt with yet, where an Internal Medicine provider is stating that ETOH intake and tobacco abuse is noted to be two of the three listed chronic conditions? HPI has listed for example: 1. a chronic cardiovascular disease; followed by 2.tobacco abuse; and 3. ETOH intake. I can not find any specific coding/auditing guidelines regarding if substance abuse of either tobacco and/or alcohol abuse can be considered a chronic condition when scoring the HPI piece of the E/M?
This can really change the outcome when scoring an E/M, especially the HPI.
Anyone ever dealt with this challenge before and have any supporting documentation or reference materials?
Thank you,
 
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