How to Create a Successful Lifestyle Medicine Practice

Abstract

A lifestyle medicine (LM) practice aims to treat the whole person, with a focus on addressing the root lifestyle causes of disease. Creating a practice in LM comes with an array of challenges. Utilizing different payment systems and practice models, such as cash, traditional insurance, Direct Primary Care model, or concierge systems, allows for the incorporation of more LM services and ensures sustainability in the practice. One must develop a sound business model and aim to keep costs low. Optimizing coding, taking advantage of additional LM services, and expanding service formats to group visits or telemedicine are all creative ways to incorporate and develop LM practices. Anticipation of new challenges and flexibility in practice models and payment systems allows one to be successful in starting or transitioning to an LM practice.