In this informative episode of the Pursuing Private Practice podcast, Jennifer is joined by Hannah Turnbull to shine a light on the pros and cons of taking insurance in a private practice.

Hannah discusses how her own eating disorder recovery drove her to choose dietetics as a career. After discovering Intuitive Eating while in school, she explains why it took a while to ‘click’, and how her journey of recovery strengthens her relationship with clients.

“Intuitive Eating is the reason I’m still a dietitian today.” – Hannah Turnbull

Always an entrepreneur at heart, she shares how her transition to a private practice began while still working full-time at a hospital, and how her varied work experience prepared her for running a business.

Now one year after transitioning from a solo to a group practice, Hannah tells how she hired her team to be in alignment with her values of a weight-inclusive practice, and how she leads the business and manages her employees.

Together, Jennifer and Hannah then dive into the topic of insurance, how she brought in her value system in her decision to take insurance, and the learning curve involved.

“For me it just made sense, I like to use my insurance when I can, and I want to make that one less barrier for somebody to be able to get care that they deserve.” – Hannah Turnbull

Some of the topics discussed include:

• Why she started taking insurance to be in alignment of her values to be accessible, inclusive and equal.
• Her learning process, and how she studied other HAES dietitians who were taking insurance to learn the first steps, and establishing a system.
• Why her practice is on 3 insurance panels, and instead of an all-or-nothing approach, why it’s okay to pick and choose and start with a few, and why she decided to not contract with some insurance companies.
• The importance of doing the research for your state, and utilizing the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’s individual state organizations and also local organization reimbursement chairs for localized information.
• The Pros of taking insurance, how it grew her practice, and provides better and consistent client care with weekly appointments.
• The Cons of taking insurance, dealing with the upfront work and delay to be accepted and the added expenses.
• How she handles reimbursement rejections to advocate for the client.
• The importance of policies and procedures and having clients sign off to understand.
• Why she created her first course “Nourish Your Knowledge” with colleague McKenzie Caldwell to provide a resource they wish they had earlier to better understand HAES and Intuitive Eating.
• Her plans for 2020 including speaking engagements and webinars to teach clinicians the steps to start taking insurance, and her role as an advocate to help clients have more access to insurance and support.

 

Visit https://pursuingprivatepractice.com/ to learn more about resources to start and grow your dietitian private practice!