Practice Better is the complete nutrition practice management platform for health and wellness professionals, particularly private practice dietitians! Practice Better (aff. link) offers client management, scheduling, billing, programs and courses, telehealth features, a mobile app, and more.
But, as with any platform, there are many uses for it, and just as many questions! So, this post is meant to serve as a Q&A guide to answer all (or most) of your questions about Practice Better.
How Practice Better can help your business
So many new business owners try to avoid paying for another platform, but using something like Practice Better can help streamline so many tasks in your business. With platforms like Practice Better, you will also improve your client experience!
Some real-life benefits from using Practice Better (aff. link):
- Save your sanity (and time) by not having to email with clients back and forth to schedule things or send documents back and forth
- Integrates with FullScript which can provide an additional revenue stream, if you are often referring supplements to clients
- Automated billing and contracts = less admin time
- Send onboarding resources and materials to enhance client success
Is Practice Better HIPAA compliant?
Yes, Practice Better (aff. link) is a HIPAA-compliant platform for US-based professionals, and PIPEDA for Canadian professionals. You can check for provincial-specific compliance by Googling “[your provincial privacy legislation] Practice Better compliance” for more information.
Using Practice Better for courses or memberships
If the course or membership is for clients only, like an onboarding course or continued support after, Practice Better (aff link) is great! Especially if you are thinking about the client experience, using Practice Better will mean your clients won’t need to sign up for a separate platform.
This isn’t to say Thinkific (aff. link) or similar platforms aren’t great, because they are. I would suggest using Thinkific if the course will be open to the general public. It will be easier to manage dozens (or hundreds) of students in a course platform like Thinkific, and more people are used to taking courses in a platform like Thinkific!
If you want to create a legitimate, scalable online business offering that will attract potentially hundreds or thousands of people who have not yet worked with you directly, I’d go with something more robust like Thinkific.
Can Practice Better run group programs?
Absolutely! You can use Vimeo to protect the video content and avoid YouTube ads. Most prefer to move to Thinkific when they get more than 20-30 members in their group program. Practice Better can’t be as customized (design-wise) as something like Thinkific (aff link) or Kajabi, so that’s something to keep in mind!
Practice Better vs Healthie
There are many platform options on the market for wellness professionals, and Healthie and Practice Better are both strong options. There are some pros and cons of both platforms!
Healthie: better for large practices with multiple professionals that need access, and does allow direct billing with insurance; but no nutritional analysis component is available on this platform.
Practice Better (aff link): more affordable than Healthie, no meal planning or nutrient analysis functionality but they do have a supplement database (Fullscript), fully integrated video calling system.
There are some technical differences between Practice Better and Healthie, if there are particular functions you’re looking for within your practice.
Do you need Practice Better if you are using Acuity or Calendly?
Absolutely! There’s so many things that Practice Better can help you with besides scheduling appointments. For example:
- Sign contracts
- Fill out intake and follow-up forms
- Share documents securely
- Create supplement protocols and setup a shopping cart for clients
- Share notes directly, without having to find their email address
Can you bill insurance directly from Practice Better?
Yes! Practice Better provides the option to export CMS-1500 forms which can be uploaded and submitted via Office Ally. You will be notified once the claims have been processed, either successfully or if there any issues with the submission.
What’s the best way to send forms in Practice Better?
You can automate some of the forms you send out to clients, but we don’t want to bombard clients with a ton of forms in one day. So, number one is starting with the contract of services and CC agreement. Second, then send the HIPAA policy & release of liability.
Then once that is all signed, allow them to book an initial session and complete the intake form. After that is done, you can prompt them to start a food journal or submit what they have.
Can you track business KPIs in Practice Better?
Yes! Practice Better offers a “Reports” feature that allows you to see initial visits, follow-ups, cancelled appointments, and inquiry calls by custom date ranges. This will allow you track KPIs and can help you track your client calls for insurance purposes as well.
Can you automate client protocols in Practice Better?
Yes! You can create protocols that include all the nutrition, supplement and lifestyle recommendations you typically give for a specific condition and use them for multiple clients. It saves so much time so you’re not reinventing the wheel every time you see someone with the same condition. Although it can take a bit of work in the beginning, the time it continues to save is so valuable!
Can you automate adding invoices from Practice Better into Quickbooks?
Unfortunately no. You may be able to hire an automation expert to transfer the data, or you can also pull a monthly report from Practice Better and give it to your accountant.
Does Practice Better integrate with Stripe or Square?
Yes! Practice Better does not store any client information on their servers. All credit card info is stored in your Stripe or Square account. It’s easy to integrate either of these platforms to your Practice Better account. Most dietitians prefer to use Stripe!
