FAQ

Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDNs) are food and nutrition experts with a minimum of a graduate degree from an accredited dietetics program and who completed a supervised practice requirement, passed a national exam and continue professional development throughout their careers.

In addition to RDN credentialing, many states have regulatory laws for dietitians and nutrition practitioners.

“Registered dietitian nutritionist” is a legally protected title. Only practitioners who have completed specific educational requirements, passed a national exam and continue learning through ongoing education can use this title and credentials.

However, there is no specific, standardized meaning for “nutritionist.” Anyone can call themselves a nutritionist, and unfortunately, unqualified health care recommendations can cause people harm.

So whether someone calls themselves “dietitian” or “nutritionist,” check for credentials to ensure they are qualified nutrition experts.

Yes, we are in network with most major health insurance companies. If you have questions about using your insurance to pay for your nutrition appointments, you can message us using the form in the footer of this webpage. See more info on insurance using the ‘Use Insurance’ tab in the header of this website.

During your 60-90 minute initial visit, we discuss all aspects of your lifestyle that contribute to your overall health.

This includes your day-day diet, as well as your nutrition and medical history. We often discuss your past attempts to address your top health concern to see what worked and what didn’t.

Generally in the 1st session, I provide a modest amount education based on your underlying medical condition and/or goals.

However, the majority of the initial session is dedicated to gathering the information needed to fully comprehend your current dietary issues, establish why they exist and how I can effectively work with you to resolve them.

When requested, a basic meal plan may be provided. However, due to this initial encounter only lasting 60-90 minutes, we can use future sessions to further customize this meal plan around the foods you love and enjoy.

Also during this session, we aim to set short-term and long-term goals based on your personal dietary needs to ensure we have a successful game plan.

Believe it or not, your health insurance will OFTEN cover your nutrition visit (as well as your follow-up visits). To read more about using health insurance for your visits, click here.

If your insurance will not cover your nutrition visit or you have a health insurance which we do not participate with, the cost of the initial 60-90 minute visit is $180.00 and each 30-60 minute follow up visit is $90.00.

We offer discounted packages for follow-up sessions depending on the number of sessions purchased.

At the end of our first visit, we will discuss a possible frequency of your follow-up appointments.

Follow-up visits are 30-60 minutes long. While most people prefer to come in every 2-3 weeks, I have patients who come in weekly, as well as those who come in every 2-3 months.

Everyone’s nutrition situation is unique. Without meeting you, it is difficult to determine how many follow-up visits you may need — as well as what frequency.

I use follow-up visits to review your progress, address your questions and any challenges you are struggling with.

Below are a couple examples of what might be covered in a 30-60 minute follow-up session:

• For a patient with high cholesterol, we may spend a session discussing ways to bump up key nutrients in your diet. You might leave the session armed with a whole new set of meal and snack ideas, as well as a handout on various foods that help address high cholesterol.
• For someone with PCOS, we may use the session to learn how to correctly read a food label and identify key nutrients to include in your diet as well as those to exclude. We may spend time discussing the impact of your medications on weight loss, fertility, and overall health.
• For someone with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), we might spend a follow-up session discussing the pro’s and con’s of following a specialized diet. I might collect your food preferences and then in a future session, I might provide you with a customized meal plan, based on your individualized food preferences.

As time goes on, your sessions become more individualized — we might add exercise, sleep and stress management goals.

As you can imagine, the topics for the follow-up sessions can be endless.

Insurance often covers these visits.

But if they don’t, I provide discounted rates based on the number of visits you purchase.

To read more about using and verifying your health insurance for your visits, click here.

An initial self-pay visit (60-90 minutes) is $180.00 and a self-pay follow-up visit (30-60 minutes) is $90.

We typically meet weekly or every-other-week. Consistency is key. We will always assess your needs and discuss decreasing or increasing frequency based on where you are in relation to your long-term goals.

This can vary depending on each individual’s needs. As progress is made over time, sessions may be changed to monthly, or as-needed.

Nutrition therapy is similar to mental health therapy — it generally takes many sessions over longer periods of time to improve and/or resolve nutrition-related concerns.

We know health challenges usually don’t occur overnight – they can take years to develop. Unlearning some behaviors will take time.

No one can say exactly how many sessions it will take to achieve your goals.

We get this question a lot.

We don’t love meal plans, for several reasons.

1. They don’t teach anyone how to eat.
2. Most patients don’t follow them.
3. They are labor-intensive for the dietitian to create.
4. They require us to spend time outside the session preparing the meal plan. This means, if you are using insurance for your visit, we can’t bill insurance for this time.

Our contracts only allow for billing insurance for the time we spend during the session with the patient.

Therefore, there will be an additional fee for you as the patient for meal plans.

We understand you may still want a customized meal plan. If that is the case, we can work with you on this.

However, it will be at an additional cost that would need to be paid before creating your meal plan.

You can speak with Caitlin during your session if you would like to add on this service.

Allergies
Autoimmune conditions
Cancer nutrition
Cardiovascular disease
Diabetes
Gastrointestinal disorders
Food allergies
Food sensitivities (including MRT LEAP testing)
High blood pressure
High cholesterol
Men’s health
Nutrient deficiencies
Renal disease (kidney)
Sports nutrition
Weight management
Women’s health

To name a few…

Our practice does not specialize in pediatric nutrition or eating disorders (ED).

Nutrition counseling is personalized, so how many visits you need will vary from person to person. Some people need one or two visits for education and awareness, but many clients require ongoing, multiple visits to build new, lifelong habits.

We need 24 hours notice to cancel your appointment without a missed appointment fee.

Clients who miss a phone or video session or in-person session or who cancel a session less than 24 hours’ notice will be charged $75. This is unless we are notified at least 24 hours in advance (1 business day), or in cases of true emergency (hospitalization, natural disaster, etc.).

For prepaid package sessions, clients will forfeit one session if they fail to show for their scheduled phone or video session or if they cancel their session as part of their package with less than 24 hours notice — unless we are notified at least 24 hours in advance or (1 business day), or in cases of true emergency (hospitalization, natural disaster, etc.).

If you need to cancel your appointment (and it is MORE than 24 hours away), you can do so through our HIPAA secure patient portal HERE. Click on ‘Upcoming Sessions’ to request a change.

If you wish to cancel your appointment (and it is LESS than 24 hours away), you can’t do so online. You must email us at caitlin@russellnutrition.com.

Per our office policy, a late cancellation fee of $75 may occur. We understand emergencies come up. And you will not be penalized for something outside of your control.

We just ask that you communicate with us.

Once you scheduled your first appointment, you will receive intake forms via the patient portal called PracticeBetter.

We recommend allowing 20-30 minutes to complete the paperwork prior to your first visit.

Verify your insurance benefits with your insurance company. It is 100% your responsibility to know what your nutrition counseling policy entails.

For more information about insurance verification, please click HERE.

Other things you may need to have ready before your first session (if applicable) are:

• Copy of your insurance card and driver’s license  – you’ll receive information on how to upload a copy of these
• Insurance referral (if you have an HMO plan, your family physician must provide an insurance referral in order for your insurance plan to cover our sessions)
• Insurance prior-authorization if applicable

We charge a $75 no-show fee for missed appointments.

Individual appointments are scheduled for a specific time slot and reserved exclusively for you. Missing a scheduled appointment hurts 3 people.

1) You – because you do not receive counseling that helps you achieve your health goals.
2) Me – because I prepare ahead of time for each appointment in order to best serve you.
3) Other clients – because someone else in need of nutrition counseling could have benefitted from the missed appointment time.