Money Talks
The cost of providing medical care is increasing. The driving forces include inherent health care system conflicts of interest and financial incentives for procedures and technology. Effective lifestyle medicine principles are not easily adopted and rewarded in the present environment. Recent moves toward outcomes-based pay systems offer the potential to demonstrate the effectiveness of lifestyle medicine principles while bypassing many of the biases, application delays, and political machinations of the traditional randomized control trial methodology. The American College of Lifestyle Medicine is uniquely positioned to be a leading organization in improving health, enhancing patient experience, and reducing the cost of care.