Integrations

Billing MNT through your own Claim.MD account

By Javier Alvarez · Updated September 29, 2026 · 6 min read

Claim.MD is the clearinghouse many private-practice dietitians use. It sits between your practice and the payers: it takes your claim, checks the format, sends it to the right payer as an electronic 837P, and returns acknowledgments, rejections and electronic remittance advice (ERA). It also runs eligibility checks. For the bigger picture on what a clearinghouse does and how Claim.MD compares with Office Ally and Availity, see clearinghouses for dietitians.

This page covers how an RD sets up and uses her own Claim.MD account for medical nutrition therapy claims, and what changes when you connect Duo Practice to it. Everything about Claim.MD comes from Claim.MD's public documentation as of September 2026. Their screens can change, so treat their docs as the source of truth.

What Claim.MD does, and what it doesn't

It does:

• Accept claims typed into its portal, uploaded as a file, or sent by software via SFTP or API.
• Check claims against format and payer-connection rules and reject the ones that fail, with a reason.
• Send accepted claims to the payer and show their status.
• Run real-time eligibility (270/271) checks.
• Receive ERAs (835) from payers you've enrolled for ERA and show what was paid, adjusted or denied.
• Handle payer enrollment paperwork for claims and ERA, often pre-filled.

It doesn't:

• Decide your codes. It doesn't know whether the visit was an initial 97802 or a follow-up 97803, whether 4 units match a 55-minute session, or whether Z71.3 is accepted by this payer.
• Credential you with payers. Claim.MD says you must be credentialed with a payer before completing enrollments in Claim.MD.
• Write your note, track Medicare MNT hours or keep the physician referral.
• Guarantee payment. A claim the clearinghouse accepts can still be denied by the payer.

The last point matters most. Rejections come from the clearinghouse or payer front end and mean the claim was never processed, so you fix it and resend. Denials come on the ERA after the payer processes the claim. More in claim rejection vs. denial.

Setting up Claim.MD as a dietitian

Based on Claim.MD's Quick Start Guide:

1. Create the account as the owner. Claim.MD asks the business or account owner to create it, with a US ID, a camera for verification, and a card or bank account for Claim.MD's own fees. Make sure your NPPES record has current contact details, because Claim.MD may call to validate the provider.
2. Add users. Each person gets their own login. Claim.MD explicitly prohibits sharing usernames and passwords.
3. Add the provider. Enter your NPI and Tax ID. If you bill under a group, add the organization. The NPI Type 1 vs. Type 2 guide explains which NPI goes where.
4. Claim enrollment, per payer. The provider enrollment screen shows, for each payer, whether electronic claims need enrollment first ("Enrollment Required") or can go now ("No Enrollment Required").
5. ERA enrollment, per payer. Options include "Quick Enroll," "Auto-Enroll," or instructions and forms. Claim.MD warns that ERA "can only be returned to one clearinghouse." Enrolling moves all ERA for that NPI/Tax ID to Claim.MD, which will change things if another system currently receives your remits.
6. Turn on eligibility for the payers you want to check.

You don't need to wait for ERA enrollment to finish before sending claims (Claim.MD). Plans and prices are on Claim.MD's pricing page.

Eligibility checks for nutrition visits

In Claim.MD you pick a provider and payer, then a benefit type or a procedure code, and enter the patient's policy number or date of birth (Eligibility). One line in Claim.MD's own guide saves a lot of confusion: "Most payers do not respond to the Procedure Code and only recognize the Benefit Type."

So an electronic check confirms the plan is active and returns general cost share, but it rarely answers whether this plan covers 97802 with this diagnosis, how many nutrition visits are left, or whether the benefit is preventive or medical. Those answers usually take a call. The 270/271 vs. phone verification guide explains the gap. The benefits verification checklist and the verification call script cover what to ask.

Claim.MD also warns against re-running the same patient repeatedly, since that raises your transaction count. Use the eligibility history search instead.

Submitting MNT claims through Claim.MD

Claims can reach Claim.MD in four ways: typed in (direct data entry), uploaded as a file, via SFTP, or via API from your software. For an MNT claim, the fields that cause most trouble are the same whichever way you send it:

• CPT and units that match the documented time (units calculator).
• Diagnosis pointers: each service line has to point to at least one diagnosis.
• POS 10 or 02 for telehealth, and a modifier if the payer uses one (telehealth billing).
• Rendering vs. billing NPI: Claim.MD warns when a group NPI is placed in the rendering field.
• Referring provider for Medicare MNT and any plan that requires a referral (Medicare MNT billing).

By default Claim.MD holds every claim until a user approves it on the Manage Claims page. An administrator can turn off "Transmit Approval Required" in Account Settings, and Claim.MD recommends keeping it on for your first claims. Check which setting your account uses so you know whether claims leave right away.

Rejections, corrections and ERAs

• Rejected claims show up in Claim.MD's rejected claims list with a reason. Fix the field and resubmit. Nothing was processed, so it isn't an appeal.
• Corrected claims after a payer processed the claim: in Claim.MD you set frequency code 7 in Box 22 and enter the original claim number (ICN) from the ERA (how to correct a professional claim). Claim.MD notes that Medicare doesn't accept electronic corrected claims. Once Medicare has processed a claim, you correct it through the appeals process.
• ERAs appear under View ERA once you're enrolled with that payer. Each line shows the allowed amount, payment and adjustment codes. Reading them is covered in how to read an ERA/EOB, and the codes are explained one by one in the denial codes reference.

Using Duo Practice with your own Claim.MD account

Duo Practice is an AI admin for dietitians. It records the session, writes the MNT note, and drafts the claim from that same session. It sends claims through your Claim.MD account rather than a clearinghouse of its own. Here's what that looks like:

1. Connect once. In Claim.MD, go to Settings → Account Settings → API Key (Account Key) and generate a key (Claim.MD: API). Paste it into Duo's Claim.MD integration. Duo Practice checks that the key works.
2. Check eligibility from Duo. The request goes through your Claim.MD account, and the payer's response shows up in Duo. The limits described above still apply.
3. Review the drafted claim. Duo Practice builds the claim from the session: CPT code, units from the recorded minutes, ICD-10 codes and pointers, POS and provider details. It runs structural checks before you send.
4. You press Submit. The claim goes to your Claim.MD account. If "Transmit Approval Required" is on in Claim.MD, the claim also waits for approval there.
5. Track what comes back. Duo Practice reads claim statuses and ERAs from your account. When a claim bounces, it explains why in plain language. Payments show up in Duo's Revenue view.

You still own the Claim.MD relationship: your account, your payer enrollments, and your Claim.MD plan, billed by Claim.MD. For how the most common alternative setup works, see Practice Better + Claim.MD: what stays manual.

Duo Practice is independent software that connects to your own Claim.MD account. Claim.MD is a trademark of Claim.MD, Inc. Duo Practice is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Claim.MD, Inc.