THE DIETITIAN

We are in-network with the following insurances:

 

New York

• United Healthcare Community Plan

• United Healthcare Choice

• Oxford Freedom and Liberty

• Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield (Commercial Payers)

• Empire Blue Cross Blue Blue Shield Healthplus (Medicaid)

• Aetna

• Cigna

• GHI

• HIP

• Healthcare Partners IPA

• Healthfirst

• Metroplus

• Oscar

• Wellcare

• Fidelis

• Humana

• Magnacare

• Medicare

• Affinity

• MVP

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New Jersey

• Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey

• Wellcare

• Qualcare

• Amerigroup

• Horizon NJ Health

• Aetna Better Health of New Jersey 

• United Healthcare Choice

• United Healthcare Community Plan

• Aetna

• Cigna

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If we are out of network with your insurance, we can provide you with a claim form to send to your insurance company for reimbursement if you have nutritional counseling benefits.

 

Our out-of-pocket rates are:

 

Initial visit (up to 90 minutes): $300

Follow-up visit (up to 30 minutes): $150

 

Insurance Frequently Asked Questions:

 

How do I know if nutrition is covered by my plan?

You can call your insurance company and ask or you can call one of our friendly and helpful staff members and they can help you sort through the coverage and benefits for the insurances that we are in-network with.

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Do you accept Medicaid?

We take several managed Medicaid insurances, including United Healthcare Medicaid, Healthplus (Blue Cross Blue Shield) Medicaid, Healthfirst Medicaid, Emblem Health Medicaid and MetroPlus Medicaid. We do not take “straight” Medicaid.

 

Do you accept Medicare?

Yes we do. Medicare only covers for nutrition counseling for (1) diabetes or (2) renal disease. We also accept some of the dual plans (managed Medicaid alongside Medicare) or, if you have a Medicare supplement plan, we may be in-network with your other insurance. Please be aware that even though you may have Medicare plus a private insurance, coverage will still fall under Medicare’s coverage guidelines, which means you’ll only be covered for diabetes or renal disease.

 

Will I have a copay for my visits?

Some insurances consider nutrition counseling a preventative service and therefore there would be zero patient responsibility with the visit. For example, Oxford Freedom plan considers nutrition preventative for overweight, obesity or diabetes. Similarly, Aetna and Cigna have preventative benefits. With other insurances, the specialist copay always applies to nutrition counseling visits.

We do our best to work with insurance companies to ensure the best coverage we can for our patients. Unfortunately, we do not decide whether someone has a copay. But most insurances recognize that nutrition is a cost-saving service that’s worth not charging its members to utilize.

 

I have a high deductible plan. Will I owe you the full rate of the visit?

Some insurances consider nutrition preventative and so the claim is paid by the insurance company without going toward your deductible. In other cases, the insurance company applies the negotiated rate toward the deductible.

If your claim is applied to your deductible, you will be responsible for the contracted rate/negotiated rate. That means we will send out the claim to your insurance, and the insurance company will adjust how much we get paid based on what they would normally pay us. You will never be held responsible for more than what your insurance company would have otherwise paid. For most insurances, the contracted rate is different based on the length of visit, so we do not know the exact number you will be held responsible for until we bill out the claim, unfortunately. You will see the amount you owe on your insurance’s EOB and we will bill you only once the claim is processed by your insurance company.  

 

Do you offer cash-paid discounts or other promotions or incentives?

At this time, we do not. We strive to provide the highest quality service to patients and are not offering breaks at this time. Bear in mind that while there are some nutritionists that charge lower rates, our practice only hires fully-qualified practitioners and maintains a level of oversight and quality that serves as a model for many other nutrition practices.