Medical nutrition therapy is medicine. The insurance is priced like it, and cheaper than you expect.
A registered dietitian holds a credential, usually a state license, and treats conditions: diabetes, kidney disease, eating disorders, tube feeding, food allergy. That makes the work a clinical service, and a claim against it is a malpractice claim, whether the dietitian works in a hospital, a private practice, a sports program or over video. The policy is professional liability written for a licensed clinician, with general liability for the office and, increasingly, cyber for the patient records a small practice holds on a laptop. Hospital-employed dietitians are covered by the hospital while on shift; the private practice, the consulting contract and the side clients are not. We place it for solo and group practices, contractors to facilities and telehealth-only practitioners.
Tell us the situation.
One licensed human replies the same business day — not five agents, not an auto-responder. If the policy you have is already the right one, we will tell you.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
Send us what you have. We’ll tell you if it’s right.
Your current policy paperwork, a renewal notice, or nothing at all. A licensed agent reads it and replies the same business day.
What dietitian businesses actually need.
Professional liability (malpractice)
Claims that your assessment, plan or advice injured a patient, including licensing board defense.
Without it — A wrong tube-feeding formula or a missed allergy is a medical claim, and a general liability policy excludes professional services.
General liability
A patient trips in your office, or a demonstration at a client site damages property.
Without it — The landlord's lease requires it, and a facility contract will not sign without a certificate.
Cyber and privacy
Breach response and regulatory defense for patient records, including a lost laptop or a phished email account.
Without it — Health records are the most regulated data a small business can hold, and a breach notification is required whatever the size.
Telehealth
Confirmation that video and phone consultations, including across state lines where you are licensed, are covered.
Without it — Older policies are silent on telehealth and some limit it to the states named on the application.
Products and supplements
Liability for supplements or meal products you sell or recommend under your own label.
Without it — Selling a product is a manufacturer's exposure and excluded from a professional liability policy unless added.
Business property
The scale, the body composition analyzer, the laptop and the office contents.
Without it — Small in dollars, but the analyzer alone can cost more than a year of insurance.
The claims we actually see.
Ordered by how often we see them, not by how dramatic they are. Each one names the coverage that answers it — and the policy people wrongly assume already does.
Most common
A patient claims a plan or advice caused harm
Covered by Professional liability
Eating disorder, renal and bariatric patients are the highest-severity work. Carriers ask what share of your practice they are and price on it.
Common
A licensing board complaint
Covered by Board defense, under professional liability
Most complaints come from a patient or a colleague and are dismissed, but the hearing needs a lawyer who knows the board, and that is a sublimit worth checking.
Less common, severe
A breach of patient records
Covered by Cyber
A solo practice with a few hundred patient files is still required to notify each of them and the regulator. The cost is in the notification and the legal work, not the ransom.
Rare, catastrophic
A reaction to a supplement you recommended or sold
Covered by Products liability, if added
Recommending is professional; selling is products. A private-label supplement with a contaminant is a claim your professional policy will not answer.
What the policy will not cover.
Pick a procedure to see what the exclusion actually means and whether it can be placed somewhere else.
The policy covers the practice of dietetics within your license: assessment, counseling, medical nutrition therapy and the office you do it in. It is not a policy for products, for a gym or for unlicensed coaching sold under the same name.
Where a dietitian's policy stops
Practicing outside your state licenses
Telehealth with a patient in a state where you hold no license is unlicensed practice, and the policy follows the license.
Can it be placed? Yes, by adding the license or a compact registration.
Prescribing or ordering outside your scope
Order-writing privileges vary by state and facility. Acting beyond them is uncovered.
Can it be placed? Only within the scope your state grants.
Selling products under your own brand
Supplements, meal kits and branded programs are a products exposure.
Can it be placed? Yes, with a products endorsement or a separate policy.
A gym, kitchen or retail space
A teaching kitchen or a fitness floor is a different premises risk and is rated separately.
Can it be placed? Yes, once the space is described.
What the insurance company will ask about your dietitian business
We read the applications the markets use for businesses in this field and pulled out what they actually ask. Have these answers ready and a quote takes a day instead of a week, because nobody has to come back to you for the missing piece.
About the business
- What type of medical facility are you (such as clinic, home health, urgent care)?
- When did you start operating?
- How many locations do you operate?
- What is your annual revenue?
- Do you have a website?
How you operate
- How many full-time and part-time employees do you have, and what is your total annual payroll?
- How many independent contractors do you use?
- Do you have a formal training and education program for your staff?
- Is there a credentialing and privileging process in place for your staff?
- Do you require a physician on-site or on-call 24 hours a day?
Safety and controls
- Do you have a formalized process for patient referrals?
- Do you have a transfer agreement with a nearby hospital?
- Are written physician orders required for all drugs and medicines you provide?
- When you provide oxygen in a patient's home, do you provide NO SMOKING signs?
- Do you conduct criminal background checks, and at what level (state or federal)?
Your history
- Have you or any predecessor ever had an insurance claim?
- Has your insurance coverage been canceled or non-renewed in the last three years?
- Has similar insurance ever been declined or canceled?
- Is there any current contention or circumstance that may result in a claim?
Money and people
- What is your annual sales from expendable medical items?
- Do you rent or lease medical supplies or equipment, and if so, what are your annual rental revenues?
- Do you sell any products under your own name or label?
- Who provides your accounting and tax services (name and address)?
- Do you require contracted staff to carry their own professional liability insurance?
Have these ready
- Your five-year claims history from your current insurer, with details about each claim
- Your current licenses and certifications
- A table of your staff by type (full-time, part-time) including hours and payroll
- Proof that contracted staff carry professional liability insurance
- Your principal's resume if you have been in business less than three years
You answer what you can; a licensed agent fills the rest with you.
What our dietitian clients ask us.
Do I need my own insurance if I work for a hospital?
For the hospital work, no; the employer's policy covers you on shift. For anything else, yes: private clients, a consulting contract with a nursing home, a sports team, an app. The employer's policy also defends the employer's interest first, so many hospital dietitians carry an inexpensive individual policy for board complaints and for the day the interests diverge.
How much does dietitian insurance cost?
Individual professional liability for a dietitian is among the cheapest clinical policies there is, often a few hundred dollars a year. A private practice with an office, staff, telehealth and cyber is more, and the price rises with the share of eating disorder, renal and bariatric patients and with any product sales.
What does a dietitian insurance application ask for?
The question bank has no dietitian-specific form yet, but applications for this class typically ask: your credential and state licenses, years in practice, the settings you work in (private practice, facility contract, telehealth, sports), patient conditions treated and the share that are eating disorders, renal or pediatric, whether you order labs or write orders in a facility, whether you sell supplements or products, annual revenue, staff, and any claims, complaints or board actions in the last five years.
Is a nutritionist covered under a dietitian policy?
Not automatically. A nutritionist without a license is doing coaching, not treatment, and is placed on a different policy with a different price. A practice that employs both should say so on the application, so each is rated for what they actually do.
Commercial insurance is 96% of what we do — it is not a department here, it is the whole business. Not ready to talk? The guides answer the questions this page raises in more depth. Already insured with us and need a certificate or a policy change? Ask the service team rather than starting a quote — it is faster and it goes to the people whose job it is. We also write home and auto, which is usually cheaper alongside the business policy than apart from it.
Handed a lease, a vendor packet or a client contract with insurance requirements? Paste it into the COI Requirements Decoder to see what each one means for your business, or read what the requirements mean.