Scaling impact through shared medical appointments
Key Takeaways:
- Shared medical appointments allow clinicians to scale their impact while improving patient care.
- Resources are available to help you get started, including reimbursement information.
One of the biggest challenges for clinicians trying to help patients make sustainable lifestyle changes is time.
Behavior change is not easy; it requires education, coaching and identifying environmental, household or workplace obstacles to making healthier choices. That’s hard for any clinician to accomplish in a routine, 15-minute patient encounter once or twice a year.
Shared medical appointments (SMAs), or group medical visits (GMVs), are an innovative, reimbursable delivery model that provide clinicians with more time to educate more patients about healthier lifestyle behaviors. Shared appointments allow clinicians to greatly scale their impact and improve access to care.
The definition of an SMA/GMV is the gathering of patients, either in person or virtually, to connect in a space where they are learning, interacting and engaging to optimize their health outcomes. At the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), we offer 24 unique shared appointments in classes covering topics that range from menopause to culinary medicine, to men’s health to sleep health and many more. The health system’s Lifestyle Medicine Program has had 3,000 patient encounters through shared appointments in 2025.
Potential benefits for clinicians and their patients:
Better patient education and engagement: Shared learning environments allow patients to hear and learn from others’ questions and experiences, which helps normalize health challenges. More time can be spent on lifestyle coaching and preventive care.
More efficient use of clinician time: One clinician (and possibly a nurse, coach, dietitian or behavioral specialist) can see multiple patients in a single visit.
Improved health outcomes: Research shows that shared appointments can lead to better chronic disease control (such as A1c and blood pressure), improved medication adherence and fewer ER visits and hospitalizations.
Enhanced patient satisfaction: Patients appreciate the social support and community aspect, while feeling less rushed and more engaged.
Improved clinician satisfaction: Shared appointments can break the monotony of back-to-back 15-minute visits, encouraging collaboration and a stronger sense of meaning and purpose.
Considering the potential benefits, it is easy to see why more clinicians are exploring the use of shared appointments. Still, knowing how to make the leap from idea to implementation can feel overwhelming.
Important steps to consider when creating a SMA/GMV
Get buy-in from organizational stakeholders: Identify your organization’s leaders who will support shared appointments and get them on board first because you may encounter skepticism. Showcase examples of the many major health systems across the country that are using shared appointments successfully, such as the Cleveland Clinic and the VA Medical Center.
Identify the patient population you want to serve: Consider your community’s needs. Are you seeing a lot of patients with hypertension? You can pick a specific condition, such as menopause, type 2 diabetes or obesity, for which you think patients would benefit from extra time with clinicians. Or you could be more general and cover the six pillars of lifestyle medicine: optimal nutrition, physical activity, stress management, sleep, connectedness and avoidance of harmful substances.
Choose in-person or virtual format: With more than 40 hospitals and a large geographic footprint, UPMC offers shared appointments in a virtual format. The distance patients would have to travel and whether you have access to a facility with a large meeting space are factors to consider. Some clinicians have used office waiting rooms or conference rooms for in-person group appointments.
Work with compliance on billing: Shared appointments may be a revenue opportunity. In many cases, shared appointments are billable just like individual visits (eg, using E&M codes). UPMC offers one-on-one individual consultations as participants check in for the group meeting. Work closely with your compliance team, making sure you follow all licensure and scope of practice requirements.
Find your patients: I started by identifying potential patients with health conditions that would benefit from more time in a shared appointment in my family medicine clinic. Not everyone is comfortable in a group setting, so it depends on the patient. As our program has grown, we commonly receive referrals from other clinicians in primary care and all specialties.
There are resources available to help get started. The Integrated Center for Group Medical Visits offers a reference library of peer-reviewed publications on group medical visits. The American College of Lifestyle Medicine has a Group Medical Visit Member Interest Group, where clinicians network and share best practices, as well as a reimbursement roadmap for members to help with billing, an SMA/GMV toolkit and financial calculator.
SMAs/GMVs offer clinicians a powerful, reimbursable way to reach more patients, improving access, patient satisfaction and outcomes, making now a good time to explore how this innovative model could enhance your practice.
For more information:
Michelle Thompson, DO, AOBFP, ABOIM, DipABLM, FACLM, is the medical director of the Lifestyle Medicine Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. She can be reached at: [email protected]. She can also be found on Instagram and Facebook at @mtyogidoc, and more information is available on YouTube and WholeHeartedMedicine.org.
References:
Thompson reports no relevant financial disclosures.