BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

Could it be possible to work with an incredible dietitian FOR FREE? For many of you - yes! Tune in for a BIG announcement at Nourish & Thrive!

Find Katie:

Website - www.nourishthrivewellness.com
Instagram - @nourish.thrive.nutrition
Facebook

Transcript

0:05

Hey, everyone. Welcome to The Nourished and Thriving Show. I'm your host, Katie Lovitt. I'm a registered dietitian on a mission to help you increase your impact and legacy on the world while healing your gut and reducing your IBS symptoms. I'm so grateful to have you here. Each week I'll inspire you to live vibrantly and provide valuable resources and information that empowers you to take bold action towards your health goals. Before we dive in, make sure you follow or subscribe to my show wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode. Ready? Let's go! Hey everybody. Oh my gosh. It feels so good to be back recording a podcast. It's been a little bit. I took a break. I took a step back. And you know, this last, you know, six to nine months has been a really big pivot year for me. Pivot six to nine months, I guess. Just. Towards the middle of last year, I had it on my heart that something needed to change. I was feeling a lot of pressure with running ads and all of that that came in it. Keep in mind, I'm a dietitian. I went to school for nutrition. I am not an Instagram influencer. I'm not an advertising or marketing agency. My love is truly with working with people and helping them feel better and seeing them become more vibrant versions of themselves as they start to feel better. You know, as they're, you know, it's like a flower blooming in the sun. I love seeing people bloom. They feel better, their confidence increases, their relationships with their loved ones improve, their job satisfaction improves. That's my love. And we get to do that through nutrition and lifestyle changes. And I just think that is so I think it's so cool that you can change what you eat you know, and completely change up how you show up in the world. You really are what you eat and changing up those inputs, whether it's food and drinks or it's, you know, emotional inputs or the people that you're surrounding yourself with, it yields to a different output. Right. And so I love watching that transformation happen with my patients. And so I felt like so much of my time and energy was just spent focusing on trying to so I wanted to tell people that I'm good at that and get you guys to trust me because there's so many people on there on there, on the internet that honestly have no business doing what they're doing with their work. You know, maybe they're not really qualified, but they're really good at marketing. And so a lot of people have been burned before, were, you know, just were not trusting of the medical industry in general. And me constantly feeling like You know, I wasn't really connecting with people on a deeper level like I like to do with my patients. It was just service and you know, really trying to get people to believe that I could help them. It was just really exhausting. So I shifted things up. I changed some things. I took a big slowdown to get some things in order. And so that's what I've been working on for the last six months. nine months really. And so yeah, if you know already you may know I'm going to give you guys a drum roll. I don't know if you guys can hear this or not. My microphone is actually really good at drowning out background information, but here's the drum roll. You can do it too if you can't hear it. I am now in network with insurance. Awesome. And Like, let me, let me explain the magnitude of what that means for you guys, okay? I'm a network with Blue Cross Blue Shield, UnitedHealthcare, and Medicare. Many of you guys who have benefits and insurance benefits with these insurance character, carriers, characters, carriers, they are characters sometimes, carriers, will pay zero. So, zero dollars to get help from me if we use your nutrition benefits. How amazing is that? It was such a process for me to get credentialed with them and to get contracted with them. It was such a process for me to learn the systems and the billing and all of that. that. But I've gotten it down. I've actually been accepting insurance for a few months now. I think about November is whenever October, November is whenever it all started to come together. I started this process last summer just for reference. So I've been doing it a few months now. People are loving the benefits getting to use those benefits. I think it's really unfortunate that this benefit of getting nutrition counseling for 0 for free is not advertised to you guys. Y'all are paying. so much in insurance premiums and you have no idea that this is a benefit that you're getting, that you're, that you have as part of that premium that you're paying into. The reason it's 0, it's not, it's not 0 for every single person. Let me be very, very clear. Every single policy is very different, but I would say about 80%. I would say 90 percent of my patients right now are paying zero, who are using their insurance benefits, are paying me zero dollars. I'm getting reimbursed from the insurance carriers. And the reason that is, is with the Affordable Care Act, nutrition counseling falls under the preventive side. Is it preventive or preventative side of your benefit plan? Okay So like you go in and get your check up once a year your well check. It's zero dollars That's the same the nutrition counseling. Okay. And with a lot of these plans, especially like a lot of the Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO plans you get unlimited visits with me too. There are some limits on some of the plans as to how, how many times you can use that benefit in a year, in a calendar year. It normally resets either in January or whenever your policy renews. But y'all, it's huge news, and I take care of the billing. I'm not seeing patients every single place right now since I'm doing one on one nutrition counseling again. It is what we call medical nutrition therapy versus just nutrition coaching. So anyone can be a nutrition coach, right? Like, anyone can make suggestions or recommendations on things to do. To generally eat healthier food, but if you have a disease state or a condition and you're receiving you know personalized nutrition recommendations for it. It's falling under the medical nutrition therapy side and only registered dietitians are allowed to do that legally. So, if you are seeing a health coach or a nutritionist who's not credentialed with anything for diabetes or something like that make sure that they're collaborating with somebody, right, who has the proper training and everything. So not seeing patients everywhere, but the state laws right now, so this may change they are actually working on, it's like a pact where they're trying to do like equal so each, so there's a, let me speak, sorry, there's a national board that makes people register dieticians, it's the Commission on Dietetic Registration, but then each state. has its own licensure law, or maybe they don't. Some states don't have any licensure laws, but some states do. And they're all different. And so they're trying to come up with a pact between states where it's like, hey, I see your licensure laws, and I recognize them, and they're similar to mine. So like, If they're registered in your, in your state, they can see patients in my state and vice versa. That's in the works. It's been in the works for a while, so no idea whenever it's going to be done. So this, this list will hopefully grow whenever that gets passed. But right now, Texas, California, Colorado, Virginia, Arizona, Georgia, and Indiana. If you're in one of those states, and you're needing some support, and you have Blue Cross Blue Shield, United, or Medicare and you're wanting to use those benefits. reach out to me and let's have a conversation. I have on my website which is down in the show notes like a list of questions. I have all my patients do this before their first session so that there are no surprises. to verify your benefits. But before you book a session, you can also do it. There's a list of questions on my website. You need to call the number on the back of your card and I tell you exactly what to ask them as far as coverage. So you can know exactly what kind of benefits you do and don't have before you even schedule a session with me. Like I said, I, I require all of my new patients to do this just so. Everyone is really clear about what's covered and what's not. It helps me bill appropriately and making sure that, you know, you're not surprised you know, down the road. So. That's great news. What happens if I'm not, if I'm not in network with your insurance carrier? So say you have Aetna or Cigna that's okay. Or if you don't have insurance or, or like us, so Joe and I, we, you and our family, we use a Christian health sharing organization. That may actually have some coverage. I'll speak to that here in just a minute. And if you're with one of these other carriers that I'm not in network with I still have affordable cash rates I'm not going to say them here because they may change and I don't want to have to rerecord this But they're on my website as well. Okay, they're they're really clear on my website So let me know if you guys have any questions There's a contact me form on my website all my contact information is on my website. I'm open as a book reach out You know, let me know what questions you guys have so with the Christian Health Sharing Organizations Joe and I are both self employed and insurance is really expensive. And so many years ago now golly, probably almost a decade ago, we switched over to Christian Health Sharing Organization. We actually were with one company and then a few years ago we switched to a different company. And with this current company that we're at it's Samaritan Ministries. We've had a wonderful experience and I've actually had a patient with them. able to get some of her services with me reimbursed through Samaritan Ministries. So that is a possibility. So if you are using one of those Christian health share organizations, reach out to me and I'm happy to provide whatever information they need to get you reimbursed. I think with, with like Samaritan, Per like condition or disease diagnosis, right? So if you've been diagnosed with IBS from your GI doc and they refer you to me You know for help with that It would you know kind of fall under that health need if you will But we can you know double check with them and make sure before before we see each other. So that's what happens if, if you're not with Blue Cross Blue Shield United or, or Medicare. Medicare, I'll also say like, just to be really candid their insurance coverage is for nutrition counseling is not the best. They only cover kidney disease. Not on dialysis. I'm not a dialysis dietitian. That, that, you need to see somebody who's very specialized in that. But like the, you know, earlier stages of kidney disease and diabetes. Those are the only two things Medicare will cover. So if you don't, even if you have a supplement, it's still just those conditions for Nutrition counseling. I'm really hopeful that that will change in the future because it needs to change But right now that's the case. That's where we're at. That's what we've got So if you don't have diabetes or kidney disease, you would just be paying me those those cash rates that I mentioned before. And then I wanted to speak to gut health for just a minute, too. So a lot of you guys found me through Instagram about gut health, you know, all of that. I've done so many episodes on here about gut health and that was another reason I wanted to do insurance. And, and step back a little bit from all of the social media marketing, I felt a little hemmed in with what I could talk about. I, I chose to go into the field of, of like the specialization of gut health because it impacts the whole body, right? If you're struggling to lose weight or you have an autoimmune condition you know, or something else that doesn't seem to be an obvious like GI symptom. If you don't address gut health and if it's a problem like it is for most people, your results are going to be really limited. But trying to explain that to somebody in an Instagram post gets really tricky, right? It's like, I, why are you talking about gut health? I'm trying to lose 30 pounds, you know, like, I think, okay, maybe that connection is a little bit well established now, but you, you get what I'm saying. Like it's, it's not there really apparent need or apparent reason for, for seeking support from a dietitian. And so I felt like, you know, kind of all I could. to is this like IBS type symptom situation and really so many more people benefit from gut health. So with my patients now, whether they're coming to me for some weight loss or an autoimmune condition or something like that, like yes, we are looking at doing some specific interventions for their goals. That's always my MO, like personalized nutrition is what I do. I don't do like a protocol template that I push out to everyone. I don't have every single patient start on the same 28 day diet or anything like that. I don't have every single person do the same elimination diet, and I know there's a lot of practices out there who do it. I think they have legitimate reasons for doing it. That's not how I practice, okay? I'm a hundred percent personalized based on your goals, your needs, your desires, your bandwidth to make changes. We do all of that together. together. Okay. And so, you know, we're, we're looking at gut health as I create your personalized plan. That is going to be a consideration, right? Just like sleep and exercise and what you're eating and, and water hydration status and stress. Gut health is kind of another. thing that we have to look at because if it's not working right, if it's inflamed, if, you know, those good organisms, those good tummy bugs aren't making the things that they need to make that help support your gut lining and the nutrients that they make, the rest of everything else is going to not work. It's the same thing as like, You know, if, if someone is trying to lose, let's go back to that 30 pound example of someone's trying to lose 30 pounds and they're eating, you know, a whole foods diet and all of that, but they're getting four hours of sleep through sleep at night and their stress is through the roof. They're not going to lose that weight, right? It has to be all of the different things, or maybe they do. And then more some, right? Then you hear about people like losing too much weight because they're so stressed out. So they're, but they're not going to achieve their health goals, right? If, if, if they're not having the whole picture, the whole package. So while you may not see me speaking only about gut health going forward It's still a big part of what I do with every single patient. I just don't want to feel like I'm confined to only to only gut health, right? Because our bodies have a lot more greater, deeper needs for nutrition. Gut health is a huge part of it, but it's not the only reason, it's not the only people with gut symptoms aren't the only people who can benefit from working with me. Does that make sense? Cool. So that's my big announcement. That's kind of what's been going on over here. I'm not sure what the frequency is going to be on this podcast. I'm kind of trying to figure out where I want it to go, what I want to do with it. I may just do like some quarterly updates. I may do once a month episodes. I don't think it's going to be weekly, honestly. I'm, I'm seeing a lot of patients and so my time is very limited. But I would like to keep it going, so it may just be kind of as things come up, as topics come up that I think y'all would benefit from hearing, maybe I release an episode. So anyways, next steps. Contact information is below. Head to my website to check out your insurance benefits and verify what would be covered. Reach out to me with any questions. And of course, you can go onto my website and schedule an appointment. And like I said, you're going to be filling out one of those verification of insurance benefits forms anyways. So you're going to have a really good understanding of what's covered before we ever even meet. So, that is all for now. Thank y'all. so much for your support. If you or somebody else, you know, would benefit from working with an awesome dietitian for free through Blue Cross Blue Shield, United or Medicare, reach out, let me know. I'd love to support you on your way to achieving your health goals and feeling like your best self. So we'll talk soon guys. Thank you so much for listening to the entire episode. I hope you are feeling inspired and empowered to take bold action towards your health goals. If you enjoy what you heard, don't forget to follow my show so you never miss a new episode. And it would mean the world to me, if you left me a review, so others know what to expect from my show. Last, get in touch. Let me know what bold action you're taking. Let me know how you're inspired. Follow me on Instagram@the_healthygut_dietitian. I've put a link in my show notes for you, so you can simply click and follow. Come say hi, I respond to all my messages and I can't wait to get in touch.