Dietitian services can improve productivity and reduce health care costs, says NutriCanPro’s Lisa Spriet
When Lisa Spriet, co-founder of NutriCanPro, first started her private practice, only 20 to 30 per cent of benefit plans in Canada covered dietitian services. That figure has since climbed to roughly 80 per cent. The jump raises an obvious question: what's driving plan sponsors to expand coverage, and is it worth it?
"People don't increase benefit coverage unless there is a bit of a ROI on it," Spriet said. "So we do have good evidence to support the ROI… We have good research and data on reduced absenteeism, cost savings in terms of drug coverage. It also leads to a more productive workforce. There's a lot of hours in a day that can be lost because of brain fog or low energy or having to take an extra couple coffee breaks where working on nutrition can really help with those things.”
Beyond the numbers, she sees dietitian coverage as a cultural signal. Newer graduates are drawn to workplaces that invest in individual wellness, and benefits like dietitian access, athletic therapy, or gym stipends help attract talent.
"Apart from those actual hard values of reducing drug care costs and reducing absenteeism, increasing presenteeism, I think just from a cultural standpoint, that really helps to attract people as well," she added.
Spriet doesn't recommend plan sponsors cut back anywhere in the benefits plan, noting her own research with NutriCanPro's benefits.
"It really doesn't impact the premium to a great extent to include dietitian services and including dietitian services can actaully reduce other costs," she said, highlighting two US studies on the cost effectiveness of medical nutrition therapy (MNT) by registered dietitians which found that for every dollar spent on MNT, there was a cost savings of more than $4.00.
Spriet's own days are split between running her team and sitting across from clients for 60-minute assessments that go far beyond asking what someone ate for breakfast.She digs into budgets, commutes, sleep habits, and whether a person can carry a lunch bag to work – the kind of ground-level detail that shapes whether dietary advice sticks or falls apart by 3 p.m. when the office cookies appear.
Yet, much of that work now centres on behaviour change rather than basic nutrition education, noted Spriet, notably as dietitian coverage can be seen as a recruitment lever. Younger workers are choosing employers based on the quality of their benefits packages, Spriet noted.
"Not only are younger people specifically choosing jobs based on dietitian coverage, but we’re also seeing more younger people coming in to see us to work on feeling their best, to work on improving their mental health, along with their diet. At this point, there isn't a stage where I would advise including it. People are looking for it. We have heard from some of our clients as well, that they either advocated for it or that they chose a job because it had the [dietician] coverage.”
Spriet notes that plan sponsors tend to frame dietitian coverage and drug coverage as competing budget lines – money spent on one means less for the other. But he two aren't in opposition because they work together. A plan that increases drug coverage for weight loss or diabetes medication without investing in the lifestyle side is missing half the picture.
"The biggest knowledge gap right now is understanding that they fit together, that it's not one or the other," she said, adding diabetes is a case in point. It is a chronic, progressive disease, and medication needs tend to rise as employees age.
But nutrition and lifestyle intervention can slow that trajectory, reducing the long-term pressure on drug spend. The same logic applies to weight loss medications – the drugs may be necessary, but they deliver better outcomes when paired with behaviour change support.
Additionally, one of the most persistent misconceptions she encounters is that dietitians are bound to Canada's food guide and will insist on a single rigid way of eating. That assumption leads some workplaces to dismiss the value of bringing in a dietitian altogether, figuring their employees aren't going to overhaul their lifestyles overnight, she said. But the latest obesity guidelines, she notes, point in a different direction.
"What really matters is behavior change and finding something that you can stick with," she said, underscoring there’s no single miracle diet or neat equation of calories in and exercise out that reliably produces lasting results.
According to Spriet, dietitian coverage in benefits plans typically lands somewhere in the $300 to $1,000 range per year, with $500 showing up most often. She notes that access is widening, especially for couples: if two partners have separate employers, it is increasingly likely that at least one plan will include some level of dietitian coverage.
Consequently, she cautions what those dollar amounts can and can’t do. Coverage is a meaningful entry point, but it may not stretch far enough for employees dealing with complex, overlapping issues like high blood sugar markers, significant weight-loss goals, and emotional eating. In those cases, one assessment or a small number of sessions is unlikely to be “enough,” because progress tends to depend on ongoing counselling and behaviour change support rather than a single consult, Spriet explained.
She also acknowledged that reimbursement rules can be opaque. Session maximums for dietitian services may be lower than for some other practitioners, and employees often don’t know the true per-visit limit until they submit a claim.
In practice, though, she finds fees are usually within common insurer caps, so the bigger constraint is the annual maximum rather than unexpected out-of-pocket costs per session.
Spriet describes nutrition support as something many clients return to over long periods. Even when annual coverage resets, people come back in the new year for follow-up sessions, treating dietitian care as an ongoing part of managing health rather than a one-and-done service.
To that end, Spriet suggests plan sponsors start with what they can control – the workplace food environment. Small moves like stocking fruit in the lunchroom or rethinking the default catering order can signal that the company values employee health without putting anyone on the spot.
“Nutrition is something that you need to keep up with,” Spriet asserted. “From a company level, a nice way of easing into it is actually changing what's going on in the workplace in terms of the food environment. And quite often, once [employees] see that you value their health and value nutrition, they're often more willing to be like, ‘Hey, this is awesome’.”
