Athenahealth EMR opinions?

[Ligament]

We are considering moving to Athenahealth as a new EMR solution. Any of you have real world advice on this product?

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[Quito]

There is a big downside to it which is that you cannot start and prep notes before the patient shows up for the visit.


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[paindoc007]

There is a big downside to it which is that you cannot start and prep notes before the patient shows up for the visit.


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incorrect. They just recently fixed that. Now you can.

It’s a fairly good system. No major complaints. Easy app to use to sign non controlled rx at home. Also simple to sign notes/access charts remotely without a vpn too. Much easier to use than epic imo. User friendly

 

[PMR2008]

We are considering moving to Athenahealth as a new EMR solution. Any of you have real world advice on this product?

What EMR are you moving from? I am considering switching to Athena myself.

 

[smarterchild]

I’ve been using Athena for about a year. Overall, it’s pretty good. I agree with Many of the pros mentioned abOve. I would add that their prior auth service is neat and rarely do I have my staff on the phone trying to get a PA for a procedure. I also like the ability to easily fax notes to any provider.

their billing is ok. I’ve had a few claims fall through their cracks and get lost to follow up. They provide virtually no coding advice if you are dealing with a denial. I find myself following up on all the insurance denials which my prior billing company used to handle for me. Their billing interface is a bit confusing but, once you go through it enough, you’ll be able to spot the information you’re looking for

also be sure to negotiate with your rep. They dropped their rate by 2 full points after a little pushing

 

[Birdstrike]

Agree with the above. I've been on Athena for 7 years now. As far as EHRs go, it's one of the better ones I've used, if not the best.

 

[drusso]

The back office and billing services were expensive. We went with eMDs/Arpima. It's basically a word processor strapped to a cash register, but at least it doesn't pretend to be anything else...

 

[Sig123]

So you have to use their PA Serg

I’ve been using Athena for about a year. Overall, it’s pretty good. I agree with Many of the pros mentioned abOve. I would add that their prior auth service is neat and rarely do I have my staff on the phone trying to get a PA for a procedure. I also like the ability to easily fax notes to any provider.

their billing is ok. I’ve had a few claims fall through their cracks and get lost to follow up. They provide virtually no coding advice if you are dealing with a denial. I find myself following up on all the insurance denials which my prior billing company used to handle for me. Their billing interface is a bit confusing but, once you go through it enough, you’ll be able to spot the information you’re looking for

also be sure to negotiate with your rep. They dropped their rate by 2 full points after a little pushing

Do you have to use their own billing service and/or prior auth service? Or can they be separated out?

 

[hyperalgesia]

The back office and billing services were expensive. We went with eMDs/Arpima. It's basically a word processor strapped to a cash register, but at least it doesn't pretend to be anything else...

That's exactly what you need imo.

Ideally, if you want to leave the service, there needs to be a relatively easy way to save your notes outside the program.

 

[smarterchild]

So you have to use their PA Serg


Do you have to use their own billing service and/or prior auth service? Or can they be separated out?

I believe you can opt out of the Prior authorization service. It will knock your rate down by 0.5-0.7%.

For billing, you have to use them. and, fwiw, no billing company will even take you on as a client once you tell them you use Athena. At least that was my experience. I wanted a company to just look over everything that Athena was doing and work any denials since Athena will not really help you with that. I must've called 10 different companies, even out of state, before I gave up.

 

[Ligament]

What are the best rates you guys were able to negotiate?

 

[hyperalgesia]

I almost went into the EMR/billing business. The outsized role of insurance companies makes it nearly impossible. They have a vested interest in inefficient/malfunctioning billing.

 

[myrandom2003]

What are the best rates you guys were able to negotiate?

Just be aware they take their cut from from every penny that comes in. Insurance payments, cash payments, copays. If you do regen med and charge cash, they get their percentage even though they didn’t do anything. Anything that gets collected and posted in their system, they get their 5-8% of that.


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[drusso]

Just be aware they take their cut from from every penny that comes in. Insurance payments, cash payments, copays. If you do regen med and charge cash, they get their percentage even though they didn’t do anything. Anything that gets collected and posted in their system, they get their 5-8% of that.

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This was the number one turn-off for me. We have in-house billing and no one will watch your money better than you.

 

[Ligament]

I have in house billing as well and would keep our in house billing. but more interested in an EMR for records, orders, communication, etc.

 

[Sig123]

I have in house billing as well and would keep our in house billing. but more interested in an EMR for records, orders, communication, etc.

100% agree — I have in house billing and would not do it any other way.

But from smarterchild’s post above — he’s saying you have to use their billing and can’t remove this service from the bundle.

 

[smarterchild]

100% agree — I have in house billing and would not do it any other way.

But from smarterchild’s post above — he’s saying you have to use their billing and can’t remove this service from the bundle.

As far as I know, the claims have to be dropped through Athena. I had a colleague who tried to negotiate an EMR only package with them but, at least at that time, they did not provide any rate discounts if you decided not to use their billing service.

 

[BPA1985]

Just be aware they take their cut from from every penny that comes in. Insurance payments, cash payments, copays. If you do regen med and charge cash, they get their percentage even though they didn’t do anything. Anything that gets collected and posted in their system, they get their 5-8% of that.


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I'm an athena user in my new practice of about a year. I've wondered about this... for all non claim related revenue and cash pay (regen, ancillaries, etc), couldn't you just set up a second CCP merchant account linked directly to your business checking account, that bypasses their "lockbox" account, and use that? And document the encounter in their EMR, but not post any payment. Then the money never moves through their system...

 

[craigkes]

Used Athena for about 3 years before just recently switching to Meditech. Wasn't my choice. I HATE meditech. I love Athena compared to this crap system. My CNA would input vitals, my nurse would pull up my template (that I made specific for pain management). You can have all sorts of prefilled templates (did my procedures in Athena also) making it very smooth. It is simpler than EPIC but very functional.

 

[PMR2008]

I'm an athena user in my new practice of about a year. I've wondered about this... for all non claim related revenue and cash pay (regen, ancillaries, etc), couldn't you just set up a second CCP merchant account linked directly to your business checking account, that bypasses their "lockbox" account, and use that? And document the encounter in their EMR, but not post any payment. Then the money never moves through their system...

That would be ideal. Would love to hear others thought on this.