Practice Better vs Duo Practice: which is better for insurance billing?
By Javier Alvarez · Updated · 3 min read
Disclosure: we make Duo Practice. Practice Better's prices and features come from its own pages, checked October 26, 2026. Where Practice Better is the better choice, we say so.
Practice Better or Duo Practice for insurance billing?
If you want one platform for clients, programs and some insurance, choose Practice Better. If insurance is most of your revenue and the coding and claim work is what takes your evenings, add Duo Practice. Both connect to your own Claim.MD account, so the clearinghouse stays yours either way.
| As of October 26, 2026 | Practice Better | Duo Practice |
|---|---|---|
| Chart, per month | Free (3 clients); Starter $35 (10 clients), Professional $69 (300), Plus $99 (unlimited) | $0 |
| AI notes | AI Charting Assistant from $10/mo for 20 hours, Professional and up | Included, 20 transcription hours a month |
| Claims | Claim.MD integration, your own account ($30 to $120/mo) | Your own Claim.MD account, plus 3.9% of what the insurer pays |
| Who picks CPT, ICD-10 and units | You | Duo drafts them from the visit; you approve |
| Eligibility | Through Claim.MD | Through Claim.MD |
| Payments (ERA) | Shown in Practice Better; you review them | Matched to each claim, with denials explained |
| Programs, packages, client portal and app | Yes, its strength | No |
| Team plan | Team $155 (2 practitioners, $50 per added one) | No group features |
Practice Better prices are billed monthly, from practicebetter.io/pricing. Claim.MD's plans are on its pricing page.
Where Practice Better is better
- Running the client relationship. Programs, protocols, packages, a client portal and app, messaging and food journals. Duo has none of those.
- Cash-pay and hybrid practices. If most clients pay you directly, Practice Better does more for you, and a percentage of insurance payments matters little.
- High insurance volume, if you like coding. A flat plan doesn't grow with your collections. At our average paid claim of about $126, Duo's 3.9% passes Practice Better's $69 Professional plan at about 15 paid claims a month. If you would rather code each claim yourself, Practice Better costs less from there.
- Teams. Its Team plan adds practitioners at $50 a month each. Duo is built for solo and small practices.
Where Duo Practice does more
- From one recording, Duo writes the MNT note, then drafts the claim from it: CPT code, units from how long the session ran, ICD-10 codes, modifier and place of service.
- Before you submit, Duo warns when a claim breaks a payer rule it knows, such as Medicare's referral requirement.
- After the claim, it reads statuses and ERAs from your Claim.MD account, matches each payment to its claim, explains denials in everyday words, and can fix and resend a rejected claim, or a denied one on commercial plans.
- A denied or $0 claim costs nothing.
What Duo doesn't do: prior authorizations, appeals, credentialing, programs or a client app.
We recorded the same 37-minute visit in Practice Better with its AI summary and in Duo Practice. Practice Better had the chart and claim ready in 6 minutes 35 seconds, Duo in 1 minute 56. It is one visit, recorded by us, so read it as a demo and not a benchmark.
The full text transcript and the step list are on the recording-to-claim demo page.
How dietitians use both
- Keep Practice Better for scheduling, the client portal and programs.
- Connect Practice Better to Duo with its API keys. Your clients and their insurance come over, and nothing is written back to Practice Better.
- Record the visit in Duo. It drafts the note and the claim, and you approve.
- The claim files through your own Claim.MD account. If Practice Better already uses that account, ERAs keep landing in the same place, because payers send ERAs to one clearinghouse per NPI and Tax ID.
Which steps Practice Better's Claim.MD connection leaves to you is mapped step by step in Practice Better insurance billing. If you are leaving Practice Better instead, Practice Better alternatives compares Healthie, SimplePractice, Kalix and Duo.
What it costs on your claims
Duo charges 3.9% of what the insurer pays on each claim. Across the claims paid for our two practices, the average paid claim is about $126, so 3.9% is about $4.91 a claim. That is our own average, not a promise for your payers. You pay Claim.MD directly for your plan in both setups. Put your numbers in the calculator on the billing service page.
Keep it. Duo Practice imports your clients, drafts each claim from the visit and files it through your own Claim.MD account once you approve. Try Duo Practice free
| Practice Better plans (billed monthly) | Free (3 clients), Starter $35, Professional $69, Plus $99, Team $155 |
|---|---|
| Practice Better claims | Claim.MD integration with your own Claim.MD account ($30 to $120/mo); you choose codes and units |
| Practice Better AI notes | AI Charting Assistant from $10/mo (20 hours), Professional plan and up |
| Duo Practice | Free chart and AI notes (20 transcription hours a month); 3.9% of what the insurer pays on each claim |
| Use both? | Yes: Duo imports Practice Better clients and insurance, one way |
| Prices checked | October 26, 2026, on each vendor's own pages |
Duo Practice, in short
- What it is
- Duo Practice is a free EHR with insurance billing built in. It drafts the note and the claim from the visit, files the claim under your NPI once you approve it, matches the payment and explains denials.
- Who it's for
- Independent registered dietitians who bill insurance.
- Price
- The chart is free. Billing is 3.9% of what the insurer pays on each claim, with no monthly fee, so a claim paid $0 costs $0. You pay Claim.MD directly for your own clearinghouse plan.
- How it differs
- Practice Better, Healthie and SimplePractice give you claim tools and leave the claim work to you. Duo Practice does that work, and it can run on top of the EHR you already use.
