A Clear Path to Insurance Billing for Private Practice Dietitians

Superbills VS Insurance Billing

One of the main questions dietitians need to answer when starting a private practice is whether or not to offer insurance billing as a service to clients. Here are some of the issues to consider.

Psychology of Self-Pay

Over 40% of Americans would not be able to pay a $400 emergency expense out of pocket. Clients generally default to “No” when it comes to spending money. Clients are not sure what the benefits of working with you will be or whether it will truly be worth the cost. In this scenario, the dietitian must be more of a salesperson to get the client to see the legitimate worth of the partnership.

Psychology of Insurance Paying for Preventive Services

When nutrition services are covered by insurance, the client has already paid the insurance company for the nutrition counseling benefit. They may tend to see skipping a dietitian’s services as a waste of their resources. So when insurance pays for services, the client tends to default to “Yes”

Learning Nutrition Services Insurance Billing Is Challenging

The steps to becoming credentialed and contracted with insurance companies and learning insurance billing and coding are daunting for the new-comer to private practice. Most RDNs have had to learn by trial and error and that’s just not right.

Dietitians who have been through the start-up process will tell you that getting competent at billing as quickly as possible will allow your practice to achieve a profit much sooner.

A Solution for the Billing Beginner

Steve DellaCroche, RD at Nutrition Practice Management has put together an independent study program that walks you through the basics of setting up your billing.

This program has the potential of saving dietitians many hours of internet research and insurance phone calls so that they can get on to providing the nutrition services their clients need. Access the course at Nutrition Practice Management Billing Self-Study Course.