Nutrition Coaching
Welcome to Eat Yer Veggies Nutrition!
Our Mission
Our mission is to center your healing journey around joyful healthy habits, not restrictive diets, so that it is easy and fun to maintain your health gains for a lifetime! We help you reach your health goals by promoting a healthy relationship with food, and by helping you to develop wholesome habits. Our approach is gentle and centered around you. We do not recommend diets or dieting, and instead create a custom nutrition plan for each person.
Step 1: Determine Appointment Payment Method
First, determine whether we are in-network with your insurance company and you expect them to cover our appointments together, or whether our appointments will be paid for out-of-pocket. Currently, we are in-network providers with Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare (not Oxford), NY HealthFirst, Meritain, and Emblem/GHI. Please note: We cannot accommodate pre-op bariatric approvals.
Step 2: Verify Insurance Benefits
If we are in-network with your insurance, we recommend that you contact your insurance company by calling to verify your nutrition coverage benefits, as nutrition coverage varies between plans. Please use this script to verify your nutrition benefits when calling your insurance company. See the Using Your Insurance section for more information.
If we are not in-network, then our appointments will be out-of-pocket. We can provide out-of-network billing at your request. Please see the Paying Out-of-Pocket section for more information.
Step 3: Provide Any Necessary Documentation
Depending on your insurance plan and health concerns, we may require further documentation. If you have a specific diagnosis, we may need proof of this diagnosis before your first appointment. Some insurance companies require a doctor’s referral, and we may need a referral from your doctor before your first appointment. Please see the Using Your Insurance section for more information.
What to Expect During Your First Appointment
We know that many people have never seen a dietitian-nutritionist before, and we want your first experience to be a great one!
First, we will establish your long-term nutrition-related goals. This can be goals like improving autoimmune symptoms, reducing IBS symptoms, reducing cholesterol levels, having more energy, or healing your relationship with food.
Then, we will ask you many questions related to your health. We will ask about your medical history, what you eat in a typical day or what you have been eating recently, the results of any recent blood work, and any diagnoses you have even if they seem unrelated to food (often times they ARE related!). We will also ask about your digestive health and bowel movements, your physical activity levels, your family’s medical history, and more. These questions are intended to be open-ended and non-judgmental. We are here to help you, not to criticize you.
Finally, we will work together to create short-term goals that will help you reach your long-term goals. We strive to make our short-term goals easy to attain in the time between our next appointment, and measurable so that we know we are moving in the right direction. These short-term goals may be very small steps in the right direction – and that’s okay! The plan is to build new, healthy habits and that takes time. Baby steps are often more successful over the long run than trying to change everything at once. We will also educate you on a variety of relevant nutrition topics, and provide handouts as needed.
Before you leave, we will schedule a follow-up appointment. Generally our follow-ups are within 2-4 weeks after the initial appointment. This keeps the work we’ve done together fresh and moving in the right direction.
Using Your Insurance
Step 1: Verify Your Insurance Benefits
Although not necessary, we do recommend that you first call your insurance company to verify your insurance plan’s nutrition coverage. Please use these instructions to verify your benefits. Any appointments not covered by insurance become the patient’s responsibility.
Step 2: Book Your Appointment!
You are ready to book your initial appointment! Please use the below button to do so:
Step 3: Supply Further Documentation, if needed
Finally, we may require further documentation from you. Generally, we require further documentation if your insurance is through Aetna, UnitedHealthcare, or Meritain. Providing these documents may make your appointment completely free, with no copay or deductible due!
Examples of further documentation include:
- PREFERRED: A doctor’s referral. Please provide your doctor with our Nutrition Consultation Referral and ask them to fax or email the completed form to our office.
- Lab work demonstrating proof of your nutrition-related diagnosis (such as: high cholesterol, diabetes, high triglycerides, and more)
- A doctor’s progress note indicating a diagnosis (such as: “overweight”, “obesity”, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and more)
- Proof of being prescribed a medication for your nutrition-related diagnosis. (Such as: a medication list, prescription, or a recent photo of a medication bottle with your information on the sticker).
Only ONE of the above documents is needed.
We try to make navigating this process as easy for you as possible. Our office is always available to answer questions via email or phone. We will reach out to you if we are missing documentation prior to your appointment. All appointments without adequate documentation will be cancelled 48 hours before the appointment time.
Paying Out-of-Pocket
We always prefer to bill your insurance company whenever possible. However, sometimes your insurance simply will not cover our appointments, particularly when we are not in-network with your insurance company or plan. In this situation, the full rate is due at the appointment time.
Even still, there may be some ways to reduce the cost of our appointments. If your insurance coverage includes a Health Savings Accounts (HSA) or Flexible Savings Account (FSA), these accounts can be used to pay for nutrition sessions. Additionally, if you have out-of-network coverage on your plan, then your insurance company may reimburse you for some or all of your appointment costs. For those with out-of-network coverage, we can submit the claim to your insurance on your behalf, or provide you with a superbill to submit yourself.
Out-of-Pocket Pricing:
Packages:
- Initial consultation + 2 follow-ups: $429
- Must be used within 4 months
- Initial consultation + 4 follow-ups: $588
- Must be used within 8 months
- 2 follow-ups: $232
- Available after purchase of initial appointment
- Must be used within 4 months
- 4 follow-ups: $412
- Available after purchase of initial appointment
- Must be used within 8 months
- 6 follow-ups: $540
- Available after purchase of initial appointment
- Must be used within 12 months
Individual Sessions:
- Initial consultation: $219
- 60-90 minute session
- Follow-up: $129
- 45-60 minute session
FAQ
If there’s one word to describe our approach, it would be gentle! We do not believe in strict diets or dieting, simply because the research shows that they do not work. In reality, 95% of diets fail. That means that there is a BETTER way to use food to improve our health than to follow some crazy diet that won’t last.
Instead of recommending diets, we work with you individually to identify key areas in your life where we can begin to change your habits. We know we are successful when, years from now, you are STILL using the techniques, skills, and resources that we taught you.
Our goal is to support you in creating joyful, healthy habits that last a lifetime. It’s key that these habit changes are centered in joy, because we all fall out of our healthy habits from time to time. However, if we ENJOYED those healthy habits, then it will be much easier to pick up the habit again.
Currently, we are in-network with Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare (not Oxford), 1199 SEUI, NY HealthFirst, Meritain, and Emblem/GHI.
We suggest verifying your nutrition benefits to ensure that we are in-network with your particular plan.
Different insurance companies cover nutrition services differently, and even different insurance plans under the same company can have different nutrition coverage.
The best way to determine your plan’s nutrition coverage is by verifying your benefits.
This answer to this question is highly individual. Some insurance plans only over 3 nutrition appointments per year. This is adequate coverage for someone with a simple nutrition concern or who is highly motivated to take on big changes by themselves between appointments that are spread far apart.
Other insurance plans cover many more appointments per year, sometimes even unlimited. If you have a more serious nutrition concern or would be more successful with ample support, this is the best situation.
If you insurance coverage has run out and you would still benefit from additional appointments, then purchasing additional appointments is an option.
If we are not in-network with your insurance company, then we will need to explore out-of-pocket options. There may be some ways to reduce the cost of your appointments, such as by using a HSA or FSA card, or by using out-of-network benefits. See the Paying Out-of-Pocket section for more information.
We know that many people have never seen a dietitian-nutritionist before, and we want your first experience to be a great one!
First, we will establish your long-term nutrition-related goals. Then, we will ask you many questions related to your health. These questions are intended to be open-ended and non-judgmental. We are here to help you, not to criticize you. Finally, we will work together to create short-term goals that will help you reach your long-term goals. The plan is to build new, healthy habits and that takes time.
Before you leave, we will schedule a follow-up appointment. For more info, see the What to Expect During Your First Appointment section.
Copays and deductibles vary by insurance company, insurance plan, and by your nutrition concern/related diagnosis.
Often, we are able to bill your appointment as “preventative” which, under the Affordable Care Act, means there is no copay or deductible due for your appointment. In this case, the appointment is totally free to you!
Less often, we are unable to bill as “preventative” so a copay or deductible is due. We will send you an invoice if this is the case – we do not collect copays/deductibles at the time of service. If a copay is due, generally it’s for the amount listed under “specialist” on your insurance card.