A stepwise approach to launching a lifestyle medicine practice 

Determining how to incorporate lifestyle medicine into clinical care may seem daunting but there are steps you can take to support financial viability and stability along the way. 

After developing foundational knowledge and skills in the field of lifestyle medicine, you may find yourself asking “now what?” Considering the many ways you could incorporate this valuable new knowledge into clinical practice can feel overwhelming. However, taking a stepwise approach to launching new workflows and services, as well as expanding your lifestyle medicine care team, can help with financial viability and stability and avoid a few headaches along the way. Outlined here is a stepwise approach that has been successful for seasoned clinicians in the field.  

1. Incorporate lifestyle medicine assessment questions and patient-facing resources into clinical encounters, particularly annual wellness visits. Most evidence-based chronic disease clinical practice guidelines list lifestyle change as a preventive measure, as well as a first-treatment approach and helpful adjuvant to other treatments. Assessing for lifestyle medicine vital signs should arguably be part of every clinical encounter. Offering patient educational handouts on lifestyle medicine is an easy way to bring lifestyle medicine into any visit. You can download several complimentary resources in ACLM’s Connect platform with a free account. 
2. Launch shared medical appointments (SMAs) or group medical visits. Group consultations allow you to see more patients with the same condition at one time, expanding access to care and efficiency, especially when delivered virtually. SMAs can also allow for the incorporation of interprofessional care team members who may not normally be a part of the patient’s care team, while also addressing the positive social connection pillar and providing peer support and learning. Consider using existing shared medical appointment program resources like UC San Diego’s Supervised Lifestyle and Integrative Medicine SLIM Weight Loss Program, Ardmore Institute of Health’s Full Plate Living program, or ACLM’s Lifestyle Empowerment Approaches to Diabetes Remission (LEADR) program. Be sure to leverage ACLM’s Lifestyle Medicine Shared Medical Appointment resources, including ACLM’s toolkit, six pillar introduction videos, group visit consent forms and financial calculator tool.

Content for this blog was adapted from its original version featured in the image above and in ACLM’s full Reimbursement Roadmap.  

3. Launch chronic care management (CCM), collaborative care management (CoCM), and/or remote patient monitoring (RPM). These services allow for frequent engagement with patients who have multiple chronic conditions and can support patient empowerment through self-monitoring using various approved remote monitoring devices. If you are not in a position to bring on staff to support these services or don’t want to spend time on the administrative aspects, consider third-party vendors that can expand your clinical care team and handle some of the administrative work on your behalf. Look to ACLM certified programs and ACLM partners as trusted third-party vendors.
4. Bring in other lifestyle medicine-trained team members. You can add team members by contracting time as you ramp up your services or as full-time staff members to support the expansion of existing services or the launch of new ones. In some cases, a backlog of patients waiting for lifestyle medicine services or a new referral source might prompt you to grow your care team. Focus on expanding the services that you already offer or bring in team members who can support new services. For example, nurses and medical assistants have been used to support chronic care management in the field of lifestyle medicine. If you are not surrounded by team members who are versed in lifestyle medicine, consider building a network of lifestyle medicine champions by sharing our free CME/CE offerings and inviting them to join ACLM.  
5. Leverage Existing Implementations. Build or expand your lifestyle medicine offerings using ACLM’s suite of documented implementation briefs as inspiration. Consider offering unique opportunities that differentiate your services from others in the area. Some ideas include culinary medicine experiences, produce prescriptions and medically tailored meal programs, Walk With a Doc or other physical activity programs, gardening groups, health and wellness coaching, support groups, biofeedback or bioimpedance scales. If you’re really motivated, consider launching an intensive cardiac rehabilitation program, which is the only CMS-reimbursed intensive therapeutic lifestyle change program available today. If you are doing something innovative that should be shared in the ACLM network, let us know!

Content for this blog was adapted from its original version featured in the image above and in ACLM’s full Reimbursement Roadmap.  

Disclaimer: This information is not intended to be a guide to billing and coding. In all cases, a final determination as to whether specific lifestyle medicine services will be reimbursed by a third-party payor will be subject to several conditions that may vary on a case-by-case basis, including but not limited to: applicable law regarding the clinician’s permitted scope of practice, whether the services being billed are covered services under an applicable health plan, and the specific billing and coding requirements of the payor. ACLM represents a diverse group of clinicians and recognizes that not all strategies outlined above will be applicable to all members of our interprofessional association.