For practitioners who work in the health and wellness field, it’s important to incorporate a well-rounded electronic health records (EHS) system into your business that also provides practice management features to streamline your work. Practice Better is a popular platform, but are there other options out there? Are there specific platforms for therapists, nutritionists, dieticians, and general healthcare providers? Keep reading to learn more about Practice Better alternatives, their features, and how they can benefit you and your business to reach your goals.
What to Look For in PMS?
First things first: what is a PMS? It stands for practice management software and it can describe any type of system designed to help healthcare providers manage administrative tasks and operations of their businesses. Most often these software combine features you find in electronic medical records (EMR), electronic health records (EHR), and client relationship management (CRM) platforms. The most versatile software will offer a range of tools, complement your growth strategy, and fit into your budget.
Standard Features
No matter which practice management software you choose, you should have access to a handful of basic features to help run your business smoothly. These may include:
- Workflow automation
- Appointment scheduling and booking
- Storage space and file sharing
- Client portals and profiles
- Invoicing, payments, and billing
- Proposal and contract templates
- App integration (Google Calendar, Zoom, PayPal)
- Customer support team
Depending on the specific platform, you may have unlimited access to certain features, while others are limited to the plan you choose. However, these are some must-have features you don’t want to miss out on.
HIPAA Compliant and PIPEDA
Curious to know the difference between HIPAA and PIPEDA? Well, it comes down to what country you live in. HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act established in the United States. This law regulates how your personal health information is used, accessed, and disclosed. In Canada, you’ll come across PIPEDA, which is the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act that went into effect in 2000. Similarly, this Canadian law helps to regulate the use and disclosure of your personal information. Essentially, these laws help protect an individual’s private information and data.
As a healthcare professional, ensuring your client’s privacy is protected is extremely important. In some cases it may be required for you to use HIPAA compliant or PIPEDA compliant software, so be sure to check for this feature.
Features that Cater to Your Practice
Certain PMS may be more suited to one type of practice over another. Different fields of healthcare have different protocols to follow, and this is reflected in the type of features you’ll need in your practice management platform. Look for features that may be specific to your practice, such as client assessments or questionnaires, nutritional journals or meal plans, even program or course creation.
You may also be interested in more advanced features, like branding or extensive template libraries. Here are a few features and tools to think about that could enhance your workflow and client experience:
- Customizable intake forms
- Online booking and virtual sessions
- Client’s ability to schedule appointments
- Recommendation letters
- Electronic prescriptions
What is Practice Better?
Practice Better is an all-in-one practice management software for healthcare providers. At its core, Practice Better is an elevated EHR system with client management features to help business owners run their private practice. With all the necessary tools in one place—invoicing, billing, appointment scheduling, and insurance management—practitioners can operate their practice with ease.
Features
Aside from the expected features of a PMS tool, here’s a look at some of the more advanced features offered to Practice Better users:
- Private client portals
- Program and course creation
- Group sessions
- Waiver forms
- SOAP notes and templates
- Custom branding capabilities
- Telehealth sessions via Zoom
- Process payment with Stripe and Square
- Companion mobile app
Practice Better has designed specific features that are beneficial for dieticians and nutritionists. For example, users can create food and lifestyle journals, track water, nutrition, and weight goals, as well as integrate Apple Health and Fitbit devices. It’s also important to note that Practice Better is HIPAA compliant, meaning your client’s information and data will remain confidential and secure.
Pricing
Practice Better offers affordable subscription plans for healthcare professionals, though you can try their platform with a 14-day free trial. Whether your private practice has a team of one or twenty, you’re able to grow your business and expand your team with access to many advanced features. All users can take advantage of telehealth video chat with clients, invoicing and billing, Google Calendar sync for client booking, plus secure one-on-one messaging. Practice Better offers tiered monthly subscription plans, with more advanced features and client onboarding capabilities as you upgrade plans.
- Starter Plan: $25 per month (up to 10 clients)
- Professional Plan: $59 per month (up to 300 clients)
- Plus Plan: $89 per month (unlimited clients)
- Team Plan: $145 per month (unlimited clients)
Customer Support
The customer support team at Practice Better is available to assist you with any problems or questions by submitting a request, or you can use their chat box that will direct you to specific articles to help with your issue. Practice Better’s Help Center is filled with articles and guides to help you troubleshoot your problem. And in case your clients need help with their portal or navigating the platform, there’s a section of useful information specifically for clients to access. Unfortunately, Practice Better’s customer service team doesn’t provide direct onboarding support for new users. To compensate, you can register for a live group Q&A session hosted by the support team if you’re looking for extra help.
12 Practice Better Alternatives
1. Fullscript
Fullscript is an EHR platform that focuses on integrative health, combining health and wellness treatment plans with supplement recommendations. Practitioners can create custom treatment plans for clients that include information and handouts, supplement protocols, and on-site prescription for clinics. With the help of automatic refill reminders, your clients will never miss an upcoming order.
Although Fullscript isn’t a dedicated practice management software, it can be a useful tool to complement your private practice, especially for those who regularly prescribe supplements to clients. You’ll have the added benefit of Fullscript’s medical team which offers professionally-designed research and recommendations, handouts, and protocols. If you’re curious about how the platform works, book a free 30-minute demonstration with a member of the Fullscript team to learn how you can integrate Fullscript’s platform into your business.
The great thing about Fullscript is that it’s free to use. Yes, completely free. Users who sign up for Fullscript will have access to unlimited practitioners and staff dispensaries, wholesale orders for in-office dispensing, plus a customizable storefront for $0 a month.
2. Theranest
Theranest is a practice management software designed for behavioral health professionals. Therapists, social workers, and psychologists have found Theranest’s user-friendly platform helps streamline their work with room to grow their practices. This HIPAA compliant platform allows client portals with client self-scheduling, electronic claims filing, plus access to support via phone, email, or in-app chat messaging.
The team at Theranest has set out to create a CRM platform for mental health practitioners of all kinds—solo, medium, and group practices. Non-profit organizations and educational organizations can also take advantage of Theranest and receive 25% off their subscription cost.
Theranest offers a 21-day free trial that gives you access to all the software features. After your trial ends you can subscribe on a monthly or annual basis, with the benefit of receiving one month free if you decide to subscribe annually. Pricing plans at Theranest are broken down based on how many active clients you have:
- Up to 30 active clients: $30 per month
- Up to 40 active clients: $50 per month
- Up to 50 active clients: $60 per month
- Up to 80 active clients: $91 per month
- Up to 100 active clients: Contact Theranest for more information
3. SimplePractice
As a leading EMR and practice management platform among therapists and medical professionals, SimplePractice offers a wide range of tools for practices of all sizes. Practitioners can use online booking for appointment scheduling, create intake forms, and use automation for emails, reminders, invoicing, and billing purposes. SimplePractice is a HIPAA compliant platform that also offers users access to its Monarch therapist directory and Wiley Treatment Planners.
What sets SimplePractice apart from other PMS platforms is its customization ability. Users appreciate its built-in website builder that allows you to create custom landing and service pages. Include branding colors and logos, sync your calendar to show availability, and quickly convert leads to clients.
SimplePractice offers tiered pricing plans, either on a monthly or yearly basis. Each plan comes with unlimited clients, credit card processing, access to client portals, and live customer support. You can try their platform with a 30-day free trial before deciding if SimplePractice is right for you. Take a look at the subscription plan breakdown for both solo and group practices:
- Solo practice, Start Plan: $29 per month
- Solo practice, Essential Plan: $69 per month
- Solo practice, Plus Plan: $99 per month
- Group practice, Plus Plan: $158 per month ($99 for the first clinician, $59 for each additional clinician)
4. Pabau
For those who work at an aesthetic clinic or medical spa, Pabau is a PMS system aimed to help manage your practice while prioritizing a seamless patient journey. Pabau incorporates task automation to streamline appointment scheduling and reminders, provides customizable patient forms and documents, as well as inventory management.
Pabau has included an in-house marketing suite that allows users to create newsletters and email campaigns to further support their private practice. Clinicians can create loyalty programs, referral programs, and automatically send out surveys to receive feedback from clients. This lends itself to wellness professionals interested in growing their businesses with the help of lead management to convert potential clients into repeat clients.
Unlike most practice management platforms, Pabau actually offers a free plan for solo clinicians who have 50 clients or less—this is in place of a free trial. You’ll gain access to all standard features, like patient portals, app integration, and online booking. As part of Pabau’s protocol, users will also have one-on-one support from the customer support team to get them set up with the platform. Pricing plans vary depending on how many users you have on your team and you’ll need to contact Pabau to schedule a demo to find out exact pricing information. This is how each plan is set up:
- New Business Package: Free, less than 50 clients
- Startup 100 Plan: 1 user (less than 100 clients)
- Solo Plan: 1 user (unlimited clients)
- Team Plan: 2-3 users (unlimited clients)
- Medium Plan: 4-5 users (unlimited clients)
- Group Plan: 6-15 users (unlimited clients)
5. TherapyNotes
If you’re a mental health professional, you may have heard of TherapyNotes. As a trusted EHR system, TherapyNotes provides therapists, counselors, and coaches with a fully conceptualized client management system to run their private practice. Users can share patient records and documents, take advantage of appointment scheduling, manage client payments, and have 24/7 access to online resources.
TherapyNotes has a built-in electronic prescription feature that allows healthcare providers to manage medications right from a patient’s chart. You can view a 24-month medical history and automate refills to reduce the risk of missed prescriptions. TherapyNotes is also HIPAA compliant.
Interested in this platform? Try TherapyNotes with a 30-day free trial, no matter which plan you choose to use. Every plan includes an unlimited amount of clients and appointments, access to client portals, and unlimited one-on-one telehealth sessions. Each subscription plan’s pricing is determined by the size of your practice’s team, increasing in cost the more clinicians you add (for an additional $30 per month per clinician). Here is a breakdown of pricing information for monthly subscriptions:
- Solo Plan: $49 per month
- Group Plan: $59 per month (2-29 clinicians)
- Enterprise Plan: $59 per month (30-unlimited clinicians)
6. Drchrono
Drchrono is another EHR system that incorporates practice management tools. As their tagline (“Practice medicine, not administration.”) indicates, automation of day-to-day tasks helps medical professionals spend more time with clients and less time on follow-up emails and sending payment reminders. Drchrono follows HIPAA compliant protocol, so clients are able to access patient portals and share documents, schedule appointments online, and complete self check-ins.
As far as advanced features go, Drchrono has incorporated many tools to aid practitioners run their practice. You can create custom medical forms catered to specific workflows, utilize medical images and drawing tools to annotate and share with clients, as well as send electronic prescriptions to pharmacies. You can even order lab results from the companion mobile app for fast results.
All Drchrono plans come with telehealth appointments, patient check-in, credit card processing, medical form templates, and more. Test out the platform with a free 30-day trial before upgrading to a paid plan. Unfortunately, you’ll need to contact Drchono’s Sales Line or request a quote for specific plan pricing, but to give you an idea of what features are included, check the list below:
- Prometheus Plan: EHR and Practice Management
- Hippocrates Plan: Advanced EHR and Practice Management
- Apollo Plan: EHR, Practice Management, and Medical Billing Software
- Apollo Plus Plan: EHR, Practice Management, and Revenue Cycle Management Services
7. Kareo
Another practice management system that offers a range of tools is Kareo, designed and managed by a team of doctors. Kareo is particularly useful for anyone starting a new practice that needs a bit of guidance to establish protocol and procedures. As a cloud-based platform, users can keep track of medical records, create patient portals, and schedule HIPAA compliant telehealth appointments.
Keep in mind that Kareo offers several different services depending on your business needs. With Kareo Clinical, clinicians will have access to standard practice management software to easily manage clients, records, and prescriptions. Kareo Billing caters to in-house billing processing, while Kareo Engage focuses on client relationship management and growing your practice.
Unfortunately, there isn’t any subscription information available. If you want to learn more about specific pricing information, you’ll need to fill out a form on the Kareo website. A team member will follow up with you to discuss the best plan and services for your private practice.
8. InSync
InSync combines traditional EHR tools with psychotherapy notes for behavioral health practice management. InSync supports automated workflows for tasks such as scheduling, appointment reminders, and invoices. You can import your own custom patient forms into the system to send out to clients as well as access more than 80 assessments that come with the platform. Users can also book telehealth sessions with the use of InSync’s HIPAA compliant software.
There are currently two types of practices InSync caters to, behavioral and physical therapy. Mental health providers will have access to treatment plans, telepsychiatry software, and group therapy notes to schedule, chart, or bill for the entire group. Physical therapists can curate a library of video and digital exercises for clients to access from home. And for those who work on a team of physical therapists, easily assign tasks to managers and schedulers through InSync’s practice management tools.
InSync is another platform that requires you to contact their team for more information on pricing. You can fill out a short form on their website to schedule a consultation with a team member to learn more about the platform and costs.
9. Healthie
Healthie is a HIPAA compliant platform that incorporates practice management software with client engagement. Healthcare providers of all kinds can make use of online booking features, paperless intake forms, and telehealth sessions. Users can bill and send invoices to clients, as well as create superbills as part of its insurance management feature.
Healthie’s mobile app allows providers and clients on-the-go care that promotes a higher level of engagement and interaction. Some of the features in the mobile app include wellness goal tracking, food recommendations, meal reflections and journal, and secure direct messaging. You can also share documents with unlimited storage, like lab records, insurance cards, and educational resources.
Try out any Healthie plan with a 14-day free trial, or you can start with their Free Plan (that remains free forever). With their Free Plan, you’ll be able to onboard 10 active clients, and access patient charting and scheduling, client portals, and telehealth sessions. For more advanced features you’ll need to upgrade your plan and pay on a monthly or annual basis.
- Starter Plan: Free (10 active clients)
- Essentials Plan: $49 per month (250 active clients)
- Plus Plan: $129 per month (unlimited clients)
- Group Plan: $149+ per month (unlimited clients)
10. Nutrium
Nutrium, as the name suggests, is an all-in-one nutrition analysis software. It’s also paired with client relationship management tools to provide a well-rounded platform for dieticians and nutritionists to run their businesses. Nutrium, a HIPAA compliant platform, goes above and beyond the traditional PMS system with features such as nutritional assessments, meal planning capabilities, food and exercise recommendations, plus a detailed diet analysis that charts your client's dietary data.
Since Nutrium caters to wellness professionals, the team at Nutrium has taken the guesswork out of creating specific nutritional and dietary plans and protocols for a range of clients. Their analysis software has the ability to create plans that target individual needs, like prenatal nutrition, sports nutrition, and pediatric nutrition. You can also create recipes with nutritional information to share with clients, who can then add them to their own meal plans.
Test out Nutrium with their 14-day free trial to get an idea of how to use the platform and if it suits your practice needs. Nutrium offers two paid subscription plans that can be personalized according to the number of clients you have. Both the Meal Plan Package and Follow-up Package allow users access to client records, meal planning, online booking, and telehealth sessions. You can also pay for your Nutrium plan on a monthly, quarterly, semiannually, or annual basis in case your budget is a concern. Here is a breakdown of both paid plans if billed monthly:
- Up to 10 clients: Meal Plan Package $35, Follow-up Package $55
- Up to 25 clients: Meal Plan Package $56, Follow-up Package $76
- Up to 75 clients: Meal Plan Package $77, Follow-up Package $97
- More than 75 clients: Meal Plan Package $98, Follow-up Package $118
11. Kalix
Kalix is another HIPAA compliant EMR system that uses PMS to help healthcare providers run their practices smoothly. Clinicians will be able to schedule telehealth appointments, create templates, and have access to charting forms and assessments. You can also run group meetings (up to 100 participants) and share documents and messages through your dashboard. Clients who want to track their nutritional and physical activity progress can do so with the Kalix mobile app for on-the-go care.
What’s special about this platform is its approach to group practices. If you compare Kalix to other platforms that charge more for additional team members, Kalix’s plans are based on practice volume, not staff members. This allows group practices and clinics to continue to grow their team without sacrificing the platform for their budget. You can use a sliding scale tool on their website to determine what your group practice’s monthly subscription will be depending on how many appointment hours per week you’ll have.
Try Kalix for free with their 30-day free trial, which will give you access to unlimited clients and administrative staff, invoicing and automated billing, and secure client messaging. Kalix also has a referral program in place—you’ll receive $54 in Kalix credit for every referral that signs up for a paid account. Take a look at the subscription plans available:
- Standard Plan: $27 per month
- Virtual Practice Plan: $47 per month
- Virtual Plus Plan: $69 per month
12. Practice
We couldn’t resist sharing our own platform with you as another Practice Better alternative. Practice was created for coaches, consultants, and solo practitioners with client-based businesses. We offer an intuitive platform with a user-friendly interface and easy navigation. All your necessary tools are located in one place—automated messaging and reminders, appointment scheduling, invoicing and billing, plus contracts and proposals. Although we don’t cater to health and wellness businesses, our software provides users with robust features to help streamline their workflow.
Practice has created a unique client portal that allows providers to communicate directly with their clients. There’s no need for outside apps, you can upload and share documents, quickly send texts, and share voice memos right from your dashboard. Our support team is also available to assist however we can. We offer users the opportunity to schedule one-on-one onboarding sessions with our customer support team. A member of our team will walk you through the platform and help answer any questions you may have to give you a better idea of how our software can help you and your business.
If you’re interested in Practice, you can give our platform a try with our 7-day free trial. Once your trial ends you can select one of our paid monthly subscription plans to gain access to more advanced features.
- Basic Plan: $35 per month
- Pro Plan: $60 per month
Which Practice Management Software is Right For You?
The best practice management software will not only provide you with electronic records, but it should also come with practice and client support tools that streamline your workflow. Healthcare professionals have many options to choose from, so you’ll need to look at your business goals, budget, and how you’d like to grow your practice. You can learn more about our 7-day free trial and how Practice can support you and your business and set you up for success.
