Why I’m adding insurance to my practice
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[00:00:00] For a long time, I did not take insurance, and that choice made sense for where my practice was at the time. I could control my schedule, I could predict session quality, and I could keep things simple. What changed wasn't my values or my clinical standards, what changed was the market. What I started seeing over the last few years was large venture backed healthcare companies aggressively into nutrition and therapy, and these companies have massive funding, national insurance contracts, teams that handle credentialing and billing the ability to offer frequent care at very low out-of-pocket costs.
And they aren't asking whether insurance is worth it, they're treating it as the cost of entry. At the same time, telehealth laws expanded. Clients no longer need someone local. They can compare options instantly, and that changed the math. The problem with staying cash pay only is that cash pay not stopped working, [00:01:00] but it has become harder to explain why someone should pay full out of pocket when similar care is covered elsewhere on platforms that advertise constant access.
And insurance is already part of the client's mental model because these venture backed companies are spending so much marketing dollar. The good thing is that it's bringing awareness to our services, and the issue is that it does change the landscape of your business model and what we're competing against.
I don't wanna build a practice that relies on convincing people that they shouldn't use their benefits. That just doesn't feel good. I don't think that's good care. And I don't think that's a stable business either. And that's partially why I take insurance. I take insurance 'cause it lowers the barrier to starting care for patients and it supports consistency instead of one-off sessions.
And it reduces sales pressure inside of sessions and allows me to compete, which is the most important without lowering [00:02:00] standards of care. I can compete now with these venture backed companies because I offer a similar service where before, if it's cash payer benefits, a client's gonna probably wanna choose their benefits.
Insurance is not my entire model, and that's not the goal. It's a part of my model. I still design sessions intentionally, and I still protect scope and pacing, and I set boundaries and I share all that information with you both on this podcast and on my YouTube channel. Insurance fits because I built systems to support it.
And it fits into my practice model. I didn't add insurance and just hope it would work out. I designed around it, and that means structured sessions, clear expectations, repeatable workflows, limits on what insurance covers and what it doesn't. And insurance supports the foundation, but it does not dictate the work and that distinction does matter.
And so what that means for other dietitians is that it's not about telling you to take insurance. It's about choosing your model on purpose and ask yourself, is cash pay [00:03:00] still working because it fits or is it because it's familiar? And would insurance improve access or consistency for your clients? Do you have systems that support it without burning out?
Some practices should stay cash pay and some should be a hybrid and some work best in an insurance. Model. There's no moral ranking. It's just about what fits for you. I did a whole episode about this a couple weeks ago. The bottom line is that I didn't take insurance because I had to. I took insurance because at the stage of my business, it just makes the work better.
It makes it easier for the right clients to start and it supports consistency instead of one-off visits. And it allows me to spend sessions coaching, in addition to the selling that I do. So it gives me some variety and most importantly, it lets me keep doing the work I love. With variety and creating multiple revenue streams.
And I also created insurance model because I wanted to build and expand on the other, revenue streams [00:04:00] that I have. My ultimate goal is to hire dietitians under me. Ultimately, I would like to sell this practice and with an insurance based model, although that's rare in dietetics practices to sell. It is possible, and I would love to walk you through that journey long term.
So I want you to ask yourself what practice model holds up for you through market shifts, platform competition, and changes in client expectations? I want you to think this through. Think about a model and realize that here at Dietician Boss we have resources to support you with whatever you choose and whatever sequence of events and layering you choose it.
Head over to dietician boss.com. Our membership offers live calls, templates, modules, simulations, and a lot of support to help you grow your business at your stage and improve your clinical skills. We'll see you next time.
