Update on COVID-19 2025–2026 Vaccines – From VDH, September 11, 2025

Dear Colleague,

 This letter provides important updates about the 2025–2026 COVID-19 vaccine.

On August 27, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved updated 2025–2026 COVID-19 vaccines for adults 65 years of age and older and certain individuals under 65 years of age who have at least one underlying condition that puts them at high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will meet on September 18–19, 2025. It is anticipated that the ACIP will discuss recommendations for the 2025-2026 COVID-19 vaccine and offer its recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to include its Immunization Schedule. Until then, challenges exist for patients seeking to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine from a pharmacy. Therefore, I have issued a Statewide Standing Order authorizing pharmacists to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to adults consistent with FDA indication.

This statewide standing order will facilitate adults accessing the COVID-19 vaccine within pharmacies across the Commonwealth. Minors and adults between 18 and 64 who do not have an underlying condition should consult with their healthcare provider. Currently, a pharmacist may not administer a COVID-19 vaccine to these populations without a healthcare provider’s medical authorization.

Thank you for partnering with VDH to keep Virginians safe and healthy.

Sincerely,

Karen Shelton, MD
State Health Commissioner

Medical Society of Virginia Partners with Highway Benefits, a Tax-Free Student Loan Repayment Benefit

Highway Benefits is a turnkey platform that helps facilitate employer student loan repayment and tuition reimbursement benefits. With Highway, companies can design and administer custom educational assistance benefit plans to contribute to their employees’ student loans tax-free. By offering student loan repayments as a benefit, companies can partner with employees in solving the $1.7T student debt crisis, help employees pay off their loans faster, and save them financial stress and money, all while gaining a valuable edge in attracting and retaining top talent.

A student loan repayment (SLR) benefit is an educational assistance benefit that allows healthcare employers to pay back a portion their employees’ student loans using tax-free dollars. Learn more about how it works through Highway.

A tax-free student loan repayment benefit can be more impactful than an equivalent raise for both employers and employees alike. As currently only 9% of companies offer this benefit, healthcare employers at the forefront of the adoption curve will gain a major advantage in attracting and retaining top talent.

2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule


Comments due: Sept. 12, 2025

There are two new and controversial proposals in the rule that will cut most specialties and facility-based (hospital and ambulatory surgical center) practices while increasing payment to some office-based practices. The attached impact analyses were provided by CMS on their website. The impacts relate to the efficiency adjustment and the practice expense adjustment. They do not include the 2026 conversion factor increases. Note the first chart includes all physicians and other qualified health care professionals, even low volume practitioners, while the second is weighted by relative value units.


Efficiency Adjustment

  • CMS proposes applying an arbitrary 2.5% decrease to the work RVUs and physician intra-service time of most services in the MPFS on the assumption that physicians have gained efficiency in providing them. This includes brand new services, surveyed for physician time and work within the past year. The decrease would be applied to 8,961 physician services.
  • CMS arrives at a 2.5% efficiency adjustment by tallying the last five years’ productivity adjustments in the MEI. Note that physicians do not receive an MEI-based update and that other Medicare providers receive a productivity adjustment applied to their annual baseline updates (e.g., hospital market basket minus productivity).
  • CMS states that it will exempt time-based services, such as E/M, care management, maternity care, and services on the telehealth list. Only 393 services will be exempted from the decrease. Of note, although CMS states that they will exempt time-based services and services on telehealth list from the efficiency adjustment, several of these codes remain on the pending cut list.
  • The adjustment impacts most specialties by reducing overall payment by 1%. The only specialties or professions to gain at least 1% from this proposal are: clinical psychology (3%), clinical social work (4%), geriatric medicine (1%), and psychiatry (1%), the individuals who perform a more significant amount of telehealth services, which CMS has exempted from efficiency adjustments.
  • This proposal, combined with the AMA/Specialty Society RVS Update Committee’s recommendations on individual CPT codes, results in the 0.55% budget neutrality adjustment to the conversion factor.
  • This proposal is based on the premise that physician time in the RBRVS is inflated, with criticism of utilizing physician surveys to estimate physician time. The following statement was prepared related to this unfair criticism:

Statement attributed to:

Bobby Mukkamala, MD

President, American Medical Association

“The American Medical Association believes that proposals to exclude or limit the input of expert practicing physicians and health care professionals in the development of Medicare payment policy would ultimately harm patients and represents a radical departure from the time-tested CMS decision-making process. This proposal would have negative repercussions for appropriately determining the resources required for effective patient care. To label practicing physicians conflicted when all they are doing is sharing their real-world patient experiences where empirical data often do not exist is biased, unfair and a skeptical opinion of community-based physicians.

“Academic researchers and federal officials established survey protocols that are currently used to gather information from practicing physicians. They did this because they knew Medicare depended on expert physician insight to create Medicare payment policy that mirrors the evolution of science, technology, and innovations in patient care.


“There is no substitute for relying on experienced practicing physicians when creating Medicare payment policy. No one knows more about what is involved in providing services to Medicare patients than the physicians who care for them. The valuable expertise of physicians makes them an indispensable source of survey information that Medicare can count on to create payment policy. By substituting arbitrary and flawed proposals in place of front-line, real-world knowledge from expert physicians, Medicare is proposing to cut itself off from the most credible insights into the complexities of patient care, which will ultimately lead to lower quality care, inferior health outcomes and a less sustainable Medicare system.”


Indirect Practice Expense Adjustment

  • CMS proposes an arbitrary reduction in indirect practice expense RVUs for all services provided in the facility setting.
  • The mechanism for the reduction is highly technical as CMS would reduce the portion of facility PE RVUs allocated based on work RVUs to half the amount allocated to non-facility PE RVUs.
  • CMS cites AMA and MedPAC studies showing the growing number of employed physicians and physicians in hospital-owned practices and the shrinking number of private practices as its rationale for this proposal. CMS believes that physicians who provide services in the facility no longer maintain a separate office and receive “duplicative payments” under the MPFS and the facility fees under the outpatient or the ASC payment schedules.
  • Facility-based payment to physicians will decrease overall by -7% while non-facility-based payment to physicians will increase by 4%. The results to individual physicians and specialties are proposed to be substantial.
  • While CMS proposes no exceptions, it seeks comment on the impact of this proposal on maternity care.
  • As the AMA explained in detail in our letter to MedPAC when the Commissioners were debating this so called issue of “duplicative payments,” this policy is likely to result in unintended consequences, including further incentivizing consolidation.
    • When a private practice physician performs a service or procedure in the facility setting, their physician practice still must handle coding and billing for the physician’s claim and scheduling as well. Physician practices would still have administrative staff, and their clinical staff often perform some work supporting services that are performed in the facility.
    • The results from the 2024 Physician Practice Information (PPI) survey data showed $57 in indirect expenses per hour of direct patient care for hospital-based medicine and $62 for hospital-based surgery.
    • For surgical global codes performed in the facility setting, the bundled post-operative office visits are often performed in a physician office even though the major surgery was performed in the facility setting.

Links to CMS’ detailed specialty impact tables and a new RUC infographic.

Joint Statement on Evidence-Based Vaccine Science

Introduction

In an era of misinformation and politicized health policies, we aim to reintroduce ourselves, restate our commitment to fundamental vaccine science, recommend reliable resources, and invite like-minded individuals and organizations to join us. Our motivation and drive is because we believe all Virginians deserve vaccine policies grounded in the best scientific evidence.

Who We Are

We are healthcare providers, educators, parents, scientists, public health professionals, faith leaders, and concerned citizens from communities across Virginia. We care deeply about the health and wellbeing of our communities. Together, we work toward a simple but vital mission: to protect the health of all Virginians through evidence-based immunization policies and practices. We will only consider this mission accomplished when, regardless of age, background, or zip code, every Virginian has access to safe, effective, and life saving vaccines.

What Vaccine Science Tells Us

As the national conversation around vaccines becomes increasingly divisive and confusing, we want to give Virginians the most accurate information when making decisions about receiving immunizations. We do this because we are committed to protecting the health of our friends, families, neighbors and patients above all else.

We reaffirm our commitment to the following facts:

  1. Vaccines are one of the most rigorously tested and closely monitored preventive medical advances we have.
  2. Vaccine recommendations must be rooted in empirical, unbiased and peer-reviewed research informed by reliable data.
  3. To date, established vaccine safety monitoring systems in the U.S. have successfully detected and addressed adverse consequences of vaccines.
  4. Routine vaccination is necessary to protect our communities from the spread of infectious disease, including those whose immune systems may be impaired and unable to respond to vaccination. Immunizations have eliminated devastating diseases such as smallpox from the world, polio from the Western Hemisphere, and significantly reduced the impact and harms of many other vaccine-preventable diseases.

Where can the public turn for accurate information?

We reaffirm to Virginians that their local healthcare and public health providers remain committed to sharing evidence-based vaccine practices. We affirm our trust in well established experiential guidance on vaccines. We recommend that Virginians turn to their doctors, nurses, public health officials, and pharmacists as trusted resources for guidance about vaccination.

We are also in the process of reviewing and vetting online resources and recommend the following:

Conclusion

With vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles and pertussis rising, our coalition affirms that evidence-based vaccination policies, practices and resources continue to be critically important to protect the health of all Virginians.

We invite all to join us in sourcing and sharing tested and credible information.


Signed by:

ImmunizeVA

Institute for Public Health Innovation

La Casa de la Salud

Medical Society of Northern Virginia

Medical Society of Virginia

National Council of Negro Women

Virginia Academy of Family Physicians

Virginia Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics

Virginia Chapter, American College of Physicians

Virginia Pharmacists Association

Virginia Public Health Association

Virginia Rural Health Association

Virginia Section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

DEA Alert Highlights New Scam Letters and Calls Targeting Medical Practitioners

via The American Medical Association

Dear Registrant, 

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is warning registrants of new fraud schemes in which scammers impersonate DEA personnel and notify registrants that they are under investigation, presumably in an attempt to obtain personal information. 

DEA has recently received reports of false letters and phone calls being used to contact both DEA registrants and non-registrants. It is not the DEA’s practice to call registrants regarding investigative matters.  

If you are contacted by a person purporting to work for DEA and stating that you are under investigation, please report the incident to the FBI at www.ic3.gov. You may also wish to submit the incident to the Federal Trade Commission, which takes reports at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and shares information with more than 3,000 law enforcement agencies. For any victims who have given personally identifiable information like a Social Security number or DEA registration number to a scammer, go to www.identitytheft.gov to learn how to protect against identity theft. Reporting these scams will help authorities find, arrest, and stop the criminals engaged in this fraud. 

As a reminder, DEA personnel will never contact registrants or members of the public to demand money or any other form of payment, will never request personal or sensitive information, and will only notify people of a legitimate investigation or legal action in person or by official letter. In fact, federal law enforcement officers are prohibited from demanding cash or gift cards from a member of the public. 

The best deterrence against these bad actors is awareness and caution.

Joaquin Falcon, MLIS

Director, Federation Relations

Federation of Medicine

Specialty and Service Society

4 Big Ways Medical Students Benefit from Membership with MSV

 

By Chris Fleury, Membership & Advocacy Specialist

When entering medical school, your first few weeks of orientation are packed with lectures and activities from the dozens of clubs and organizations you’ve been invited to join; each with a unique value proposition and list of benefits.  Most clubs are clearly understood from their title such as the pediatric student interest group, yoga club, and women in medicine.  You know what you’re signing up for.

Then you come across The Medical Society of Virginia (MSV), and its joint membership package with The American Medical Association (AMA), which falls into the category of organized medicine.  You’ve probably heard of AMA in the news while reading how physicians were managing the COVID-19 pandemic. But what does becoming a member of MSV and AMA mean?  And how can you take advantage of your membership to strengthen your medical school career?

The AMA represents physicians, medical students and patients on a national scope, lobbying Congress, while the MSV represents physicians, medical students, and patients on a state scope, lobbying the Virginia General Assembly. The MSV and AMA are both led by their members: physicians, PAs, residents, and medical students. All policies, advocacy efforts, and organizational goals are debated and voted on by members – and medical students have a powerful voice and vote!

As a medical student member, you can take advantage of a combined membership with MSV and AMA for the duration of your medical school career.  You get to decide how you’ll use your membership.  Regardless of how engaged you become, the fact that you’re a member makes an impact on MSV and AMA’s advocacy work.  More members equal greater influence in achieving important goals such as increasing access to care for our most vulnerable populations, or ensuring physicians can do what’s best for their patients without legislators or regulators dictating how care should be provided.

Crafting Policy

Virginia medical students have been successful in crafting state and national policy through authoring resolutions. Several examples include:

  • AMA – New policy opposing the practice of spread pricing from pharmacy benefit managers
  • MSV – New policy to reduce stigma through modernizing the accessibility sign
  • MSV – New policy supporting the addition of STOP THE BLEED training in medical schools

Access to Healthcare Influencers

Attending MSV and AMA meetings and events grants you with direct access to healthcare influencers and legislators.

  • MSV and AMA hold lobby days for you to meet with your state legislators in Richmond, Virginia (MSV) and federal legislators in DC (AMA)
  • Past speakers and attendees that students have met with at AMA and MSV conferences include leaders such as: national specialty society presidents, The Surgeon General, The Governor of Virginia, Virginia’s Health Commissioner and CEOs and Chief Medical Officers of hospitals and health tech companies.

Leadership Positions

Medical Student Members are given the opportunity to hold leadership positions through MSV and AMA. The leadership opportunities include:

  • Leading your school’s AMA/MSV chapter
  • Serving on a state or national medical student section (MSS) committee:
    • MSV has standing committees on advocacy, community outreach, and member engagement
    • AMA has committees focusing on topics such as bioethics and humanities, economics and quality in medicine, and minority issues. Take a look at the full list of AMA medical student standing committees
  • Leading the MSV MSS on the MSS Executive Committee
  • Joining AMA MSS’s Region 6 Leadership Board, leading medical students from VA, DC, MD, NJ, and PA
  • Representing medical students on one of MSV’s Boards: MSV Board of Directors, MSV Foundation Board of Directors, or MSV Political Action Committee Board of Directors

Connect with Physicians

Woven throughout all MSV and AMA events and leadership opportunities is the opportunity to connect with passionate physicians and mentors seeking to positively impact healthcare at your school, throughout Virginia, and throughout the nation. The friendships and professional relationships formed will have a lasting impact!  The community powerfully galvanizes around doing what is right for patients and physicians.

You’ve earned the opportunity to join the hundreds of thousands of physicians and medical students who are members of AMA and MSV.  Take advantage of a joint MSV + AMA membership to support our efforts to make Virginia and America the best place to practice medicine and receive healthcare!

UPDATES ON MEASLES AND SYPHILIS IN VIRGINIA

via The Virginia Department of Health

Dear Colleague: 

Measles Updates

On June 5, 2025, the Virginia Department of Health reported the state’s third measles case of the year. Given the recent cases reported in Virginia and ongoing measles outbreaks in the United States please stay alert for measles.

With summer travel underway, this is a critical time for clinicians to emphasize the importance of preventing the spread of measles through routine vaccination (one dose at 12 through 15 months of age and another dose at four through six years of age or separated from the first dose by at least 28 days) and the importance of adequate vaccination before travel. Unvaccinated patients, including infants six through eleven months of age who will be traveling internationally, or to an outbreak setting, should receive one dose of MMR vaccine prior to travel. Infants who get one dose of MMR vaccine before their first birthday should still get two more doses after one year of age. Adults should be up to date on MMR vaccinations with either 1 or 2 doses (depending on risk factors) unless they have other evidence of presumptive immunity to measles, mumps, and rubella. One dose of MMR vaccine, or other evidence of immunity, is sufficient for most adults.

Healthcare providers can access the Virginia Immunization Information System (VIIS) to verify patient vaccination history or, if applicable, through their connection to VIIS from their Electronic Health Record system. Please note that VIIS will be migrating to a new system June 24. Please plan accordingly and ensure your staff have completed VIIS LMS training prior to June 22 to ensure continued access to VIIS. Healthcare providers can learn more here. Patients may also request their records by completing the Immunization Record Request Form.

It is critical that clinicians remain vigilant for cases of febrile rash that could be consistent with measles, particularly in unvaccinated persons. Consider measles in patients with fever and a generalized maculopapular rash who have recently traveled out of the country or to regions of the United States reporting measles outbreaks. Other symptoms include cough, coryza, or conjunctivitis.

If you suspect measles:

  • Isolate: Immediately isolate the patient in a single-patient airborne infection isolation room (AIIR) or in a private room with a closed door until an AIIR is available. Patients with suspected measles should not stay in the waiting room or other common areas of a healthcare facility.
  • Notify: Immediately notify your local health department to ensure rapid testing and investigation.
  • Test: Submit a nasopharyngeal (NP) swab in VTM for PCR testing and a blood specimen for serology testing at the Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services (DCLS) following instructions for specimen collection and handling. Test results are available in less than 24 hours.

Please visit VDH’s Measles Information for Healthcare Providers for more information about measles.

Syphilis Updates

Syphilis cases increased dramatically in Virginia and nationally in the past few years.  Virginia also observed significant increases in syphilis cases among women.  Syphilis infections during pregnancy can lead to babies born with congenital syphilis, including stillbirths and fetal deaths.  There were 35 cases of congenital syphilis in Virginia in 2024, an exceptionally high case count; there are 15 cases in 2025 year to date, on track to meet or exceed the total from 2024. Clinicians and allied health professionals represent our first line of defense in detecting syphilis. Please help us identify and reduce the spread of syphilis in Virginia.

  • In keeping with updated recommendations from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), serologically screen all pregnant women at their first prenatal care visit, followed by universal rescreening early in the third trimester (28-32 weeks) and again at delivery, regardless of risk or where they live.
    • A recent study has shown that opt-out syphilis screening among pregnant women in an emergency department significantly increased syphilis screening rates and identified syphilis cases that might otherwise have been missed.
  • Screen for syphilis in all patients aged 15-44 years who are sexually active and living in a county with high incidence of syphilis, in keeping with CDC recommendationsto prevent cases of congenital syphilis.  For all other counties, continue to assess risk factors to recommend testing.  Test all symptomatic patients for syphilis, regardless of their risk factors or where they live.
  • Consider prescribing Doxycycline as post-exposure prophylaxis (DoxyPEP)for syphilis to patients for whom it is clinically indicated.  This biomedical intervention has been proven to significantly reduce rates of syphilis, as well as chlamydia and gonorrhea.
  • For additional information, visit the syphilis resource page for healthcare providers.

Thank you for your continued partnership in keeping Virginians safe and healthy.

Sincerely,

Karen Shelton, MD

State Health Commissioner

 

Telemedicine: 3 Emerging Trends to Know 

Telemedicine has been on a roll — and shows no signs of slowing down. What became possible with the telephone and even radios a century ago exploded in the 1990s with the arrival of the internet. Telemedicine blew up again in the 2010s when smartphones and broadband came on the scene, and most recently it accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite some post-COVID cooldown, telemedicine’s trajectory is still pointing up, keeping pace with the lightning speed of technology advancements as well as shifts in the modern healthcare landscape as patients and providers focus in on where and how telemedicine has the most impact. 

While the future of telemedicine continues to unfold in exciting ways, there are some emerging trends in telemedicine on the immediate horizon that will have significant impacts on patient care and how providers like you are delivering that care. 

Emerging Trends in Telemedicine

  1. AI

AI is everywhere, so it’s no surprise it tops our list of trends. Coming off 2024’s AI expansion, 2025 is already delivering more of the same. More AI tools. More capability enhancements. And more upside for providers and patients alike, affecting operations, patient care, and patient outcomes.  

Virtual health assistants, powered by AI, screen patients without an office visit, saving the patient time and, for some, increasing the likelihood that a patient will seek interaction at all. This also saves time for providers and staff, who can then focus on other important areas like care plan development and patient care.  

AI is also empowering providers with predictive analytics for early disease detection as well as AI-guided decision support with evidence-based recommendations for diagnosis and treatment to optimize patient care. 

Generative AI in documentation and coding is significantly boosting administrative efficiency, by creating process improvements — like generating referrals and claim submissions — as well as increasing error reduction. 

Healthcare IT News interviewed one telehealth leader who projected “2025 will mark the moment when AI in healthcare transcends the hype cycle and demonstrates measurable value through practical applications that improve clinical workflows.” According to the article, specialty care delivery in particular will be transformed as AI-enabled virtual platforms mature into sophisticated remote presence systems. The result? Specialists will be able to reach patients across geographic boundaries in new ways, directly and via local care teams. 

  1. Wearables & RPM

Wearables and medical monitoring devices continue to grow in availability and sophistication, enabling providers to better leverage the technology to enhance the telemedicine experience by integrating remote patient monitoring (RPM). As confidence in patient data collected by wearables and remote devices increases, the better a patient’s condition can be monitored and analyzed, allowing for better identification of trends in addition to more timely interventions.  

Whether for chronic disease management like heart disease and diabetes, or simply checking vital signs during triage or consultations, improvements in telemedicine experiences leads to better patient care, patient engagement, and patient satisfaction, as well as the most important: patient outcomes. Especially for patients who are in remote locations, who are in underserved areas, or who cannot easily attend in-person visits, this trend delivers what could be game-changing access to the care these patients need.  

RPM is also foundational to hospital-at-home programs, allowing patients to remain or recover at home instead of in the hospital — a major impact for hospital staffing and operations. In addition, it’s fueling the rise of hybrid care models, combining in-person visits with telemedicine for more personalized, flexible patient care. 

  1. Cyber Threats

Where there’s data, there are cybercriminals ready to pounce. Unfortunately the healthcare industry is a major magnet for cyber threats, which are projected to continue escalating in 2025. Protecting patient data from bad actors is always top of mind, and developments in cybersecurity continually strive to keep up as technology and AI advance — along with criminal sophistication. Provider systems and networks, hosting platforms, and even monitoring devices that collect and transmit data are all vulnerable links in the telemedicine data chain. Data breaches, unauthorized access, and session hijacking are real risks.  

In January the Department of Health and Human Services Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center released a report with recommendations for securing telehealth environments. Work with your IT experts and 3rd party providers to ensure your telemedicine systems and protocols are protected end to end. You can also consider cyber liability insurance coverage, which is something the MSV Insurance Agency provides. 

Webinar: Emerging Cancer Patterns among Asian American Populations

Please join the Brock Institute, in collaboration with Mount Sinai Center for Asian Equity and Professional Development and UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine for the 2025 Brock Institute Asian American Health Webinar!

Wednesday, May 7: 7:00 pm – 8:15 pm EST
Register Now

This year’s focus is “Emerging cancer patterns among Asian American populations”, and includes two speakers from University of California – San Francisco, Dr. Scarlett Gomez, PhD, MPH and Dr. Iona Cheng, PhD, MPH.

Objectives:

  1. Review current statistical measures and epidemiological factors regarding emerging cancer disparities, specifically lung cancer in females who have never smoked, and breast cancer.
  2. Explore preventive strategies for reducing risk of lung and breast cancers.
  3. Discuss current research efforts to address these patterns.

See the flyer for more information, or register here.

Accreditation Statement
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of Macon and Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University and Mount Sinai, UCLA. Macon and Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Credit Designation
Macon and Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.25 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Build Stronger Patient Relationships: 3 Time-Smart Strategies

Enhancing Patient Care: 3 Time-Smart Ways to Build Stronger Patient Relationships

Why Building Stronger Patient Relationships Doesn’t Have to Take More Time

Limited time shouldn’t limit your ability to build stronger relationships with your patients. And it doesn’t have to.  

By following these 3 simple strategies you can improve your patient relationships without adding a heavy burden to your already-full schedule of appointments, follow-ups, meetings, to-dos, continuing education, practice responsibilities, and more…

  1. Improve Communication to Build Trust and Connection

Simple techniques to help patients feel heard, respected, and understood

Whether seeing patients in the office or via telehealth, good communication is foundational to building trust and making sure your patients feel heard, comfortable, and respected. Last month’s blog “Patient Communication: Best Practices for Building Trust and Rapport” outlined specific best-practice tips and non-verbal techniques to up-level your patient communications, including the American Medical Association’s R-E-S-P-E-C-T strategy. Invest the time to learn about these methods — whether you can spare 15 minutes or even carve out an hour or two to dive deeper when your schedule permits. When you put into practice what you learned with intention, the ROI will pay off almost immediately. Although this is a mostly one-and-done learning opportunity to build stronger patient relationships, revisiting what you learned and regularly brushing up your skills over time is not only smart but also recommended.

  1. Keep it Simple: Speak Your Patients’ Language

Clear, jargon-free communication builds stronger patient relationships

You went to medical school, but your patients didn’t. You know this, of course. But do you remind yourself of it when you’re talking to patients? Chances are most of your patients don’t understand what might feel basic to you. And they shouldn’t need a thesaurus or Google to help them translate what you tell them.

Tricks of the trade to keeping it simple are avoiding medical jargon and acronyms right off the bat, as these are a foreign language to most patients. A recent study revealed physicians who communicated without jargon were perceived as more caring/empathetic and approachable. In addition, just say “no” to big words and any vocabulary that’s not commonly used. Experts advise using plain language and straightforward, practical information to explain diagnoses, medications, procedures, and recommendations.

Pro tip: Don’t skip the detail — go beyond the WHAT to include the WHY to ensure your patients fully understand what they need to know. Like the strategy to improve communication to build stronger patient relationships, this is more of an investment in your intention and mindset than it is an investment of time in your schedule.

  1. Embrace Technology to Stay Connected and Accessible

Use patient-centric tech to enhance engagement and streamline care

Putting today’s patient-centric technologies in place — with the goal of building stronger relationships with your patients — admittedly requires research and implementation. But once up and running, you’ll realize the positive impact without a significant ongoing burden on your time. Today’s technology options can improve communication, streamline care, and foster stronger connections between you and your patients. From telehealth opportunities to patient portals to mobile health apps, what tools will help you help your patients? Is it efficiency they need? Or access? Consider your unique patient populations and what will not only be most useful for them, but also what they may be willing or able to manage.

For example, making telehealth an option for patients without reliable internet connection is not a benefit, but it could be a real advantage for a busy working parent who is already internet savvy. Not quite a set-it-and-forget-it strategy, adding technology will require ongoing system management as well as additional interaction from you or your staff — to develop telehealth procedures, or to respond to patient inquiries sent via a patient portal, for example. But over time adding technology will enhance more than it will distract, boosting accessibility, patient engagement, and patient satisfaction.

Stronger Relationships, Better Care — Without the Extra Time

Building stronger patient relationships doesn’t require a major overhaul of your schedule — just a shift in approach. By focusing on clear communication, simplifying the way you share information, and leveraging the right technology, you can deepen trust, improve outcomes, and make every patient interaction more meaningful. Small changes, when made with intention, can have a big impact on how your patients experience care.

Looking for more ways to enhance your connection with patients? Explore our resources or visit Patient Communication: Best Practices for Building Trust and Rapport for more.