Dietetic Services
If you have private health insurance, any appointment made with one of our dietitians is eligible to receive a rebate from your insurer.
For appointments at our physical locations, we can process your private health rebate for you on our HICAPS machine. For Telehealth appointments, we will provide you with a receipt after you have paid for your consultation to self claim with your private health insurer.
How much will my rebate payment be?
The amount you are able to claim with your private health insurer will depend on your level of cover. You can enquire with your private health insurer prior to your consultation if you wish. Simply provide your insurer with the cost of the consultation and the HICAPS item number below to find out how much you will be required to pay.
HICAPS item number:
- First Consultation: 500
- Second and Support consultations: 600
Here at The Healthy Eating Clinic we believe in developing healthy eating habits through gradual change that builds on your current lifestyle. This is the basis of our consultation structure.
Your first consultation is 60 minutes in length and is all about getting started. Your practitioner will spend time getting to know you and your lifestyle thoroughly. This includes all the factors that influence your eating habits. From this information your practitioner will work with you to identify areas for improvement.
During your second consultation you and your practitioner will be looking at the next steps. Your practitioner will provide you with detailed relevant nutrition information and help you to apply this to day to day life. The aim of this process is for you to feel confident in making healthy food choices to build healthy, sustainable habits.
Support consultations are all about learning and applying further healthy eating strategies. Your practitioner is here to help you troubleshoot and problem solve barriers and challenges to healthy eating. They are often most helpful when you are feeling the least motivated.
The Healthy Eating Clinic is a firm supporter of progressive change, so it’s important not to expect a complete diet overhaul after your first visit. We recommend a tailored program of 4-5 appointments, although this largely varies and your practitioner will discuss what’s best for you.
Our practitioners provide practical advice, meal ideas and recipes. We also run additional services throughout the year such as cooking classes and healthy eating workshops.
The Healthy Eating Clinic, formally known as The Healthy Eating Hub has been operating for over 10 years. For a large part of this time we offered weight loss as a service and helped our clients to lose weight if that is what they wanted.
We have always endeavoured to do this in the healthiest way possible and with a habit-based approach. As registered health-care professionals the long term health and wellbeing of our clients (both physically and mentally) is very important to us. We were doing what we felt was the best thing for our clients with our knowledge at the time.
As time has gone on, as a team, we have found that the goal of weight loss, for the sake of weight loss is counter-productive, out of our and our client’s control and frequently leads to poor physical and mental wellbeing for our clients. As evidence-based practitioners we’ve also been spending time reviewing weight science and discovering that weight and health is not as connected as what we once thought. This evidence along with a growing body of research for a weight-neutral approach, has been a key driver of our desire to practice in this way.
Once you know better, you do better. And we are changing. We are currently in the middle of transitioning our practice to deliver a weight-neutral approach that is unique to us and because we’ve been a round for a little while this is going to take some time. If you find weight-centric content on our website or in our resources, please kindly let us know. You may have also received weight-centric advice from us in the past and this was not good for you. We’d love you to reach out and let us know. This feedback is valuable to us so we can continue on our journey of providing the best care to our clients that we can.
We are not ashamed or regretful of our past, it is simply part of our journey as healthcare professionals. We are grateful for the opportunity to continue to learn and grow in our professional development and look forward to continuing to set our clients free from food stress and teach them how to eat well for the rest of their life.
No. You can book in to see one of our Accredited Practising Dietitians whenever you’re ready.
However, Medicare rebates are only available to eligible clients with a referral from their GP. Please see our Medicare FAQs for more information.
We can absolutely help you as a couple with your nutrition. How you and your partner book in depends on who requires the nutrition advice and how you’d like to work with your dietitian. If only one of you would like individualised nutrition advice and you simply want your partner to be across the information, you can book a consultation under your name and your partner can attend.
If you and your partner both require individualised nutrition advice, two separate consultations must be booked under each name. Think about it as if you were receiving a hair cut. Whoever is receiving the service, should book in under their name. If you are both wanting the service, you should both book in.
If you both book with the same dietitian (can be booked back-to-back or different day/time) they will be able to make sure the advice and planning is coordinated, where it can be, for shopping, cooking and eating. This way you will each get individualised advice that is easy to implement together.
You are welcome to attend as a guest to each other’s consultations at any time, however, only the person who is booked into the appointment will receive nutrition advice at that appointment.
It’s not easy putting nutrition advice into practice and we’d love to support you in-between consultations. However, if you email your dietitian, you will NOT receive support in this way. As they are fully booked and busy helping other clients, they may take time to respond to emails.
If you have more complex nutrition questions or underlying medical issues, you will need to book a Support Consultations or bring your next consultation forward. You can do that by calling the clinic on 02 6174 4663 or by booking a Support Consultation online https://healthyeatingclinic.com.au/make-an-appointment/
At The Healthy Eating Clinic we are interested in your long term health. To help you maximise this, we work with you to build habits, behaviours and routines into your everyday life. We take an individual approach to helping you with your nutrition, which means we will work with you to find the best tool or resource to help you achieve your goals. Sometimes the tools that we provide our clients is a meal plan, and these can take several different forms, depending on the situation. This is all decided in consultation with your dietitian in your appointments.
Our partner brand Ayla Health is launching a mobile app which includes an interactive meal planning function, which may suit your needs for a meal plan.
If you have not had a consultation with us before, please select “First Consultation”. This can be either in person or video/phone (Telehealth).
If you have a Medicare referral from your GP you can also select the “First Consultation” and outline in your booking notes that you have a referral for Medicare rebates. You will need to email us this paperwork or bring it with you at your consultation for us to process your rebate.
If you are using DVA or have plan managed NDIS funding, please call the clinic on 02 6174 4663.
No, you can book in for Telehealth consultations with our team, no matter which time zone you’re in.
You will need to select your time zone in the top right-hand corner of the online booking system or let our team know where you’re located, so that we can ensure you book in at a time that suits you.
Once your client file has been updated to your time zone, all your appointment confirmation and reminders will be shown in YOUR Timezone.
Yes! We are an Australia-wide clinic offering phone and video (Telehealth) consultations that are not limited to those who live in Canberra.
We have also provided nutrition support to clients internationally. If you are outside Canberra please find out more about our consultations here.
No. We use highly secure Telehealth software and only ONE person with the link for the video call will be able to join at one time. Our software does NOT allow for multiple parties with the same video link to join the consultation from two separate devices.
If you have a partner, support worker or other individual wanting to join the video consultation, you will need to be in the same location and using the same device.
Due to the high volume of clients that we support every week, we are NOT able to use any other software to facilitate multiple attendees at your video consultation. We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause.
No. We use software called Cliniko to conduct our video consultations and due to the high volume of clients that we service every week we are not able to use Zoom or any other software to conduct your consultation.
Bulk Billed consultations are NOT available at The Healthy Eating Clinic.
Medicare rebates of $58.00 are available for clients with chronic conditions and complex care needs that are managed under a Chronic Disease Management Plan or an Eating Disorder Treatment Plan. A medical practitioner must refer patients for dietitian services using a designated referral form for Allied Health services under Medicare.
If you don’t have these referral documents, you can speak to your GP about whether you are a candidate for these plans.
If you already have an existing referral for dietitian services under Medicare with The Healthy Eating Clinic, you can continue to use the rebates from this referral.
We will require a copy of these documents prior to your consultation to ensure the claiming process runs smoothly. If documents are not supplied in time for your appointment you will not be able to receive a rebate. This condition cannot be waived in any circumstance.
A weight neutral approach means that we focus on habits, behaviours and routines that promote long term health for people of all body sizes that do not have the goal of weight loss.
Focusing on weight loss is detrimental to an individuals physical and mental health. Weight loss diets increase the risks of developing an eating disorder, a poor relationship with food and poor self-esteem. A desire for weight loss can lead to unhealthy, restrictive patterns of eating that actually impair long term health, not promote it.
- A person’s weight is not in their direct control. Age, sex, genetics all influence weight and we can’t directly control those things.
- A person should focus their change efforts on elements of their life they can control, like their habits, behaviours and routines.
- A person’s weight is not a good indicator of their overall health.
- A person can improve their health outcomes through consistent healthy behaviour, even if their weight does not change.
If a client comes to us actively wanting to lose weight, this is how we would handle it: We would get a very thorough history of their diet, lifestyle and health. We want a holistic view of both their physical and mental health. If weight loss is their goal, we want to understand WHY it is, so we can fully understand their motivations behind it. It is of a huge importance to us that clients feel HEARD and UNDERSTOOD. After this, we would then get their consent to work with them using a weight neutral framework and focus their efforts directly on their health. Most people want to lose weight for health reasons and it can be very refreshing for these clients, especially if weight loss has been difficult to achieve, to realise that the biggest predictors of long term health is health behaviours, independent of body weight
The Healthy Eating Clinic provides nutrition consultation and counselling within a weight neutral framework to ALL clients, regardless of their goals.
Our aim is to work with clients to build their nutrition knowledge, understand how to translate that knowledge into their everyday life and build skills in making confident food choices, listening to their body, cooking, shopping, food prep, and more.
We will help our clients build healthy habits into their life with realistic and sustainable nutrition advice that suits their lifestyle and food preferences. We do NOT to recommend the use of VLCDs, keto, fasting or other restrictive diets because we do not believe that they provide a long term, sustainable solution for people’s physical and mental health.
We hope that individuals seeking weight loss specifically, come to our clinic for help and get the opportunity to be presented with this approach and how it can support their physical and mental health long term. We see weight loss as a potential side effect of focussing on healthy behaviour changes, rather than the end goal.
We are aware that living in our weight-centric culture (i.e. a culture that puts a LOT of emphasis on weight and it’s importance) means that many of our current and potential clients want to lose weight. No-one is shamed or judged for this, as we understand the pressure that is felt to be in a smaller/thinner/leaner body, especially for people in larger bodies. Our goal is to listen and understand where they’re at and show them another approach, present the evidence for this approach and WHY we’ve chosen to practice in this way. At that point, they can choose if this is how they’d like to progress.
Restrictive diet practices can have lifelong detrimental effects on children, and is linked to an increased risk of developing an eating disorder. We passionately believe in supporting a healthy relationship with food for all ages, and for this reason will not use restrictive diet practices to achieve weight loss in children.
The weight neutral approach focuses on developing healthy habits and behaviours, and the goal is to move towards better food choices to support healthy growth and development. When a child has a healthy balanced diet they are able to achieve the weight that is right for their body. This can vary between each child, so aiming for a certain weight is never appropriate.
There are many medical conditions where certain foods and their pattern of intake influence health, which is completely independent of a child’s weight. A dietitian can help build the required pattern of intake to support your child’s health condition, and it would be for this reason that your GP has referred you. Dietitians are the university-educated experts in nutrition. They use evidence-based practice to improve your child’s diet quality and ensure that their food intakes support optimal health, growth and development.
Your dietitian will work with you and your child to increase intakes of nutrient dense foods, and implement mindful eating practices. Age-appropriate education is provided to your child so that they are able to understand the importance of healthy eating and engage with the process. We are able to assist you and your family with overcoming barriers such as fussy eating and strong food preferences, all while maintaining a healthy relationship with foods.
Any mobile phone, laptop, computer, tablet or iPad with a camera and audio will work for an online video consultation. You will not need to download any apps.
The key differences between nutritionists and dietitians are:
Nutritionists provide practical nutrition advice to healthy individuals and offer their advice within general healthy eating guidelines.
Dietitians specialise in the relationship between diet and disease. Dietitians are equipped to work with individuals with chronic and acute health conditions including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, PCOS, allergies and intolerances. You are able to receive a rebate from your private health insurance with an appointment with a dietitian and where applicable receive a medicare rebate.
All dietetic practitioners employed at The Healthy Eating Clinic to see clients are Accredited Practicing Dietitians (APDs), and are university educated in nutritional science and the practical application of nutrition principles. Body Scan Analysts are not required to be dietitians, however, they are throughly trained to explain your body scan results.
Below are the participating health funds for dietetic services through HICAPS:
Medicare rebates of $58 are available for clients with chronic conditions and complex care needs that are managed under a Chronic Disease Management Plan or an Eating Disorder Treatment Plan. A medical practitioner must refer patients for dietitian services using a designated referral form for Allied Health services under Medicare.
Under a Chronic Disease Management Plan you may be entitled to up to five (5) services per patient each calendar year. Additional services are not possible in any circumstances.
Under an Eating Disorder Treatment Plan you may be entitled to up to twenty (20) services per patient each calendar year. Additional services are not possible in any circumstances.
Yes! We only accept DVA Veteran Gold cards as payment with a DVA D904 referral from your GP. Please do not book in using the online booking system as DVA appointments are different. Please contact us to discuss the next steps.
We used to be called The Healthy Eating Hub! In February 2020 we were re-named The Healthy Eating Clinic to better differentiate ourselves from what The Healthy Eating Hub does.
The Healthy Eating Hub is an online habit building program that teaches you how to eat well for the rest of your life – one habit at a time.
The Healthy Eating Clinic (us) is Canberra’s largest collective of university qualified nutritionists and dietitians and provide clients with individualised nutrition advice, guidance and support for a range of health issues and concerns. Video consultations are available Australia wide.
Yes. You will be emailed a receipt after payment is made that you can take to your private health fund to claim.
Yes.
Medicare rebates of $58.00 are available for Telehealth consultations for clients with chronic conditions and complex care needs that are managed under a Chronic Disease Management Plan or an Eating Disorder Treatment Plan. A medical practitioner must refer patients for Dietitian services using a designated referral form for Allied Health services under Medicare.
If you don’t have these referral documents, you can speak to your GP about whether you are a candidate for these plans.
If you already have an existing referral for Dietitian services under Medicare with The Healthy Eating Clinic, you can continue to use the rebates from this referral.
We will require a copy of these documents prior to your Telehealth consultation to ensure the claiming process runs smoothly. If documents are not supplied in time for your Telehealth consultation you will be charged the full consultation fee of $210 for 1 hour or $105 for 30 minutes. This condition cannot be waived in any circumstance.
You can book your video appointment online, via email or over the phone.
Online
Send us an email at admin@healthyeatingclinic.com.au
Phone
Call us on 02 6174 4663
Lucky for you The Healthy Eating Clinic offers discounts for Consultation Packages. You can save 20% when you purchase a group of consultations in advance.
There is no expiry date on these pre-paid consultations.
Our customer service team will join on the video 5 mins prior to the start time to make sure you connect smoothly with your dietitian. If you can’t get the video working by the start of your consultation, call the Clinic on (02) 6174 4663 and we can help get you connected. You can also check out our ‘how to’ guide here.
If the technology does not cooperate, you can resume your consultation over the phone and your dietitian will email any resources or recommendations to you.
We can conduct consultations over the phone if you are not able to connect to video.
If you would prefer, or need, a phone consultation please specify this when making a booking and your dietitian will call you at the scheduled time of your appointment and will be able to email resources and recommendations to you.
Payment is due the same day of your online consultation.
Payment on the day of your video consultation:
Our customer service team will contact you on the day of your appointment (prior to the appointment time) to take payment over the phone. You will need to provide card details in order for us to process payment through our EFTPOS machine. If our customer service team was unable to reach you prior to your appointment, they will contact you as soon as the appointment is finished and payment will be required at this time.
Payment over the phone:
You can call our clinic during any open hours and make payment over the phone prior to your consultation.
Payment via email:
We can send you an invoice via email. You can pay securely by clicking the payment link in the invoice.
Consultation cost varies based on the time and type of the consultation. Below are our consultation fees.
- First Consultation (1 hour): $210
- Second Consultation (1 hour): $210
- Support Consultation – long (1 hour): $210
- Support Consultation – short (30 minutes): $105
Absolutely! We are very keen to support clients with a disability to eat well and gain independence through food.
The Healthy Eating Clinic is able to accept Self Managed and Plan Managed NDIS clients.
We are currently unable to provide services to NDIA Agency Managed plans as we are not an NDIS registered provider.
Simply complete our NDIS referral form and our customer service team will be in contact with you to organise an appointment time.
Yes. Our team of dietitians can provide a written report for NDIS claiming. To cover the time required for analysis, planning and report writing, this service incurs an hourly rate of $193.99.
You may cancel or reschedule your appointment without charge with a minimum of 24 hours notice before your appointment.
Cancellations or reschedules made with less than this notice period will strictly incur fees. Please see our Terms and Conditions for details.
InBody Scans
No, the InBody scanner does not measure bone density. It does measure bone mineral content, which may be an indicator for bone density and strength. More thorough medical testing is required to measure bone density.
An InBody scan is not suitable for individuals who have a pacemaker, implanted insulin pump, continuous glucose monitoring or those who are unsteady when standing and require assistance for walking.
The maximum weight that can be measured by the InBody scanner is 250kg.
We recommend a scan every 8-12 weeks for clients actively trying to make change. This allows enough time to see change in body composition and to determine if you are heading in the right direction towards your body composition goals.
A comprehensive scan of your body composition. This is the best method to track positive changes and measure the effectiveness of your nutrition and exercise strategies. InBody uses BIA to measure your muscle, fat and water levels.
Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) was discovered in the early 1960s. BIA is a method of measuring body composition. A small alternating current is sent through the body which measures the different resistance of the make up of the body. For example, body fat compared to body water (such as blood) has a much weaker conductivity, which equals relatively high impedance.
The InBody body composition analyser measures your body and provides a detailed, yet easy to understand report. On your results sheet, you will see how many kilograms of fat and muscle is on your body and where it is located. By monitoring these metrics over time, you can pin point the changes needed in your diet and exercise to achieve your goals. A small example of the metrics found on a InBody results sheet:
- Total skeletal muscle mass
- Total body fat in kilograms
- Total body fat percentage
- Visceral fat
- Total body water
- Segmental muscle and fat analysis
- Bone mineral content
- Basal metabolic rate
- Plus much more…
No. Private health insurance and Medicare does NOT cover the cost of InBody scans.
- Total skeletal muscle mass
- Total body fat in kilograms
- Total body fat percentage
- Visceral fat
- Total body water
- Segmental muscle and fat analysis
- Bone mineral content
- Basal metabolic rate
- Plus much more!
An InBody scan appointment is $50. You also have the option to add a scan to any nutrition consultation for $40 or purchase a scan package, which saves you 20%.
No. Due to the limited time in an InBody scan appointment, it is not possible to provide nutrition information or advice. If you are interested in individualised nutrition advice, please book a First Consultation with one of our Accredited Practising Dietitians (APDs).
The InBody scanner uses BIA to measure body composition.
Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) was discovered in the early 1960s. BIA is a method of measuring body composition. A small alternating current is sent through the body which measures the different resistance of the make up of the body. For example, body fat compared to body water (such as blood) has a much weaker conductivity, which equals relatively high impedance.
InBody scan appointments are 10-minutes. During this time the practitioner will prepare you for the scan, run the scan (this only takes approximately 60 seconds) and explain your results.
No, you do not need to undress. We will only ask you to remove shoes, socks, watches, belts and heavy outerwear. Wearing light clothing will not significantly affect your results.
Here are some suggestions to consider before having an InBody scan:
- Wear light clothing such as active wear, shorts and a T-shirt, etc
- Avoid eating a large meal in the 2 hours prior to your scan
- Avoid vigorous exercise in the hour prior to your scan
- Use the bathroom before your scan
Yes, the InBody scanner is safe. The electrical currents are small and are not harmful to the body. You won’t feel the currents and it is safe to use as often as you’d like.