American College of Lifestyle Medicine Adds Lifestyle Medicine Provider Network Poplar to its Lifestyle Medicine Corporate Roundtable


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“Poplar is successfully demonstrating the power of lifestyle medicine to reduce healthcare cost and improve patient outcomes.”

The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) has announced the addition of lifestyle medicine provider network Poplar to its Lifestyle Medicine Corporate Roundtable, a group of thought leaders and industry professionals who explore effective clinical innovations, activate marketing strategies, accelerate reimbursement and policy adoption, and pursue research and demonstrations of lifestyle medicine in practice. ACLM launched its Corporate Roundtable in 2016 and it now includes nearly 50 active member organizations in the lifestyle medicine ecosystem.

Lifestyle medicine is a medical specialty that uses therapeutic lifestyle interventions as a primary modality to treat chronic conditions including, but not limited to, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. Lifestyle medicine certified clinicians are trained to apply evidence-based, whole-person, prescriptive lifestyle change to treat and, when used intensively, often reverse such conditions. Applying the six pillars of lifestyle medicine—a whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances and positive social connections—also provides effective prevention for these conditions.

Poplar was founded by lifestyle medicine practitioners who regained joy in practice after seeing many patients reverse chronic disease and restore their whole health. Because of its emphasis on treating the root causes of most if not all of our expensive chronic conditions with a common set of lifestyle pillars, lifestyle medicine is uniquely suited to reduce cost and drive breakout revenue under value-based models like the ACO REACH, Medicare Shared Savings Program and other value-based arrangements with private health payers that allow an opportunity to deliver effective lifestyle interventions and receive reimbursement based on shared savings. This approach can more than double revenue relative to Medicare fee-for-service.

In partnership with On Belay Health Solutions, a high-performing ACO chosen by CMS as one of its original 53 Direct Contracting Entities, Poplar offers an opportunity for providers to receive reimbursement for lifestyle medicine through shared savings and partners closely with providers to deliver effective lifestyle interventions through team-based care and technology.

Poplar assigns a team of clinical and administrative experts to support each practice with their unique needs. The Poplar team leverages the experience of other lifestyle practices in the network to identify and overcome barriers so that each practice may thrive clinically and financially.

Poplar is successfully demonstrating the power of lifestyle medicine to reduce healthcare cost and improve patient outcomes, together with its founding cohort of provider partners in California, Texas, Florida and Delaware.

“As a primary care practice owner, I am all too familiar with provider burnout in the fee-for-service treadmill,” said Poplar Co-Founder David Donohue, MD, DipABLM, FACLM. “While lifestyle medicine has always been our passion, we faced many challenges in training staff and getting reimbursed. My colleagues and I are building Poplar to bring the ingredients of our success to all primary care practices who are committed to lifestyle medicine: value-based reimbursement, technology infrastructure and lifestyle medicine protocols. We are incredibly excited to work with ACLM members to build thriving lifestyle medicine practices.”

Poplar is currently inviting primary care practices committed to lifestyle medicine to join its ACO network before the CMS deadline of August 4, 2022, to be operational for 2023. Learn more at https://poplar.care or schedule a time to meet with Dr. Donohue at https://www.poplar.care/schedule-consultation.

“We are delighted to welcome Poplar’s participation in the Corporate Roundtable,” said ACLM President Cate Collings, MD, FACC, DipABLM. “Poplar has a unique opportunity to partner with Roundtable members who are delivering digital therapeutics or lifestyle coaching to access a large and growing patient base and value-based reimbursement. Poplar also has an opportunity to partner with payers and health systems to implement value-based initiatives focused on lifestyle medicine.”

ABOUT POPLAR—Poplar is a nationwide network of primary care lifestyle medicine practices. Founded in 2021 as the first national network of lifestyle medicine providers, Poplar was developed by Dr. David Donohue, former chair of ACLM’s Lifestyle Medicine Provider Network initiative, and Dr. Wayne Dysinger, chair of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine. In partnership with On Belay Health Solutions, a high-performing ACO chosen by CMS as one of its original 53 direct contracting entities, Poplar offers an opportunity for providers to receive reimbursement for lifestyle medicine through shared savings and partners closely with providers to deliver effective lifestyle interventions through team-based care and technology. Poplar is successfully demonstrating the power of lifestyle medicine to reduce healthcare cost and improve patient outcomes together with its founding cohort of provider partners in California, Texas, Florida and Delaware. Learn more at https://poplar.care.

ABOUT ACLM–The American College of Lifestyle Medicine is the nation’s medical professional society advancing lifestyle medicine as the foundation for a redesigned, value-based and equitable healthcare delivery system, leading to whole person health. ACLM educates, equips, empowers and supports its members through quality, evidence-based education, certification and research to identify and eradicate the root cause of chronic disease, with a clinical outcome goal of health restoration as opposed to disease management. Learn more at http://www.lifestylemedicine.org.

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