I am using it in my work and I have not received any complaint of difficulty or malfunction with payment from the patient and just this week, I have used athenaone as a patient used when I paid my bill from Banner Health. I can truly say it is a very good and recommendable software to use.

It is easy to use, fast and transactions are safe. As of today, I did not encounter any patient that complains when it comes to their billing statements with athenaone software. The statement enters through a link sent via SMS and email, in that way the patients will have choices in whatever mode they want to use to access their medical bill.

The only thing I would suggest for improvement is that once the patient settled the bill, they cannot review back immediately the previous bill posted but from the admin side, if there are any query from the patient, all the details can be accessed and viewed by the health care staff so it is still east to assist the patient.

We are a Family Medicine Residency which makes managing the clinic more complex for us than most clinics because our providers are all part-time, there's Faculty over site of the Residents, and they are learning. We went live 2 1/2 years ago with 75 end-users and have been very successful with Athena. Implementation took about 2 1/2 months and was up to full schedules within 5 weeks of go-live. We've added on Dulcian CCM software which has helped us earn a lot of income doing CCM just documenting time we were missing in our old EHR. We've also implemented electronic check in which has helped get more historical information in our charts and more screeners completed on our patients. We realized a 1 FTE decrease in Medical Records and have realized savings in other areas.

There are lots of bells and whistles built into the software and they are moving towards releasing more and improving all the time. Free interfaces make life so much easier for us! Athena listens to users when developing the software, they are visionary with future software needs in order to meet MIPS requirements. Implementation was big but there were people helping us through each step. We have an amazing Account Manager and meet with him once a month to go over open issues and discuss financials. Athena is overall a very forward-thinking company. Athena Marketplace has lots of add-on features to help make your staff's lives easier. We've acclimated well.

The tickler system for follow up visits are subject to user errors and need constant review. However, honestly, most recall appointment tools usually do because patients just don't return on time or try to get as much time in between visits as possible. Task assignment over rides (TAO) take some getting used to and are hard to filter for some incoming document situations. I wish there were more filters on the TAOs. Our patients feel like we over-communicate with them so if you go with Athena, make sure you start asking the patients their communication preferences from the first new appointment they schedule with you. It's important to get phone calls unchecked if they do not want reminders in several ways for the same thing. Call campaigns to get patients back in for visits are embellished with their wording and can contradict what you said in your message. ie: You do not need an appointment to get your labs drawn. Then Athena adds You are due for an appointment in the email and you don't even know they are saying that to patients so something to watch. All software has things we wish were different.

I am a Family Medicine primary care physician. I have worked w/ my fair share of various EHRs over the years & have to say that, of all the ones I’ve used in the past, Athenahealth is w/o a doubt the absolute worst. To be fair, it does have (some) good things about it as aforementioned above, but those helpful features pale in comparison to the daily struggle that using this system most commonly affords to the provider. Note that the majority of those singing this product’s praises via reviews on this website are administrators who only have to use it for billing & not the doctors actually battling & doing the necessary hard work in the trenches. That should tell you something. And those few doctors who do like it tend to either not be in primary care or, based on their specialty, simply don’t actually have to use & document on it much. But as an individual w/ even the slightest shred of computer programming/coding experience, I can quickly look at this EHR & recognize a system which was initially poorly coded & has since long been neglected by its original developers. Again to reiterate, IT/customer support is entirely absent & derelict in their duties to continually improve on this system. One final piece of food for thought to top it all off is that I was just getting so frustrated w/ this system over time in a sort of Pavlovian conditioned sensitization that I was ultimately forced to resign from my first-time career job as a PCP as a result. So don’t be me.

The organization of certain sections was done pretty well. Easy INR managing. Fairly good growth charts w/ automatically calculated percentages available. Good implementation of external screening questionnaires, meaningful use, etc. Ability to create auto-texts, templates, etc.

Glitchiest product imaginable: text formatting issues, superimposed text transferring to next screen, text failing to scroll to next line causing entire paragraph to look jumbled up, poor copy-paste, small view screens/boxes, stubborn dragging/sorting of ICD diagnosis code boxes, frequent slow-downs, freezes, sudden unpredictable crashes failing to save one’s note work. Severely outdated terminology for certain medical diagnoses making simple common diseases difficult to find in search feature. Abysmal medication refill system. 3, 5, sometimes even 10-15 min. to address 1 refill request (inexcusable). Very difficult to confidently say whether a prescription has actually been filled or not. Medication lists are just a complete trainwreck. ‘Medicare monthly order form’ is not a medication that should EVER need to be reconciled. System shockingly even was able to allow me to prescribe controlled substances under other doctors’ names unwittingly & w/o their consent. Poorly interfaces w/ outside labs, pharmacies, hospitals, other clinics, etc. Does not communicate well w/ others. Requires way too much daily hands-on maintenance work to keep organized, unsustainable for a busier practice. Absolutely ZERO (& I do mean ZERO) helpful customer or IT support. Even had an Athena clinical trainor fly in to seemingly attempt to help, who only sat in the break room & fiddled on their computer the whole week & ultimately proved incapable of providing effective solutions.

My previous experience is with a large health organization with a home grown EHR. As I was involved in the design of that system, I was initially worried about moving to a vendor product. Thankfully that design experience helped me in the transition over to Athena and allowed my organization to anticipate and mitigate issues with data conversion and implementation that many organizations struggle with when changing systems. Overall our transition was smooth and resulted in minimal loss of productivity.

Easy to use with an intuitive interface that works well for ambulatory providers Company is responsive to issues and "flow-busters" Near zero downtime Revenue stream up significantly

Athena may not be tailor made to my specialty, but that is a small trade off for up time and interoperability

Overall, very good EMR. Great price. Poor support and improvements on hospital platform

Lots of billing intelligence and assistance.

They focus heavily on the ambulatory side, and not as much on the hospital side. Also- long wait times for customer support.

We still have issues with multiple ICD 10 dx being accounted for by the health insurance companies for patient visit billing. The billing information is limited to a certain number of codes per claim. For complicated patients with multiple problems the claims do not transition over to the insurance company. Usually only the top 4 would. Some patients can have as many as 20 codes per annual encounter.

Relatively easy to use after training and some oversite during implementation

It has little functionality for the large multi specialty group for customization. It doesn’t allow quick review of the ongoing story and treatment plan for chronic diseases. Medication flow charts are lacking for chronic disease management. The present ones are too cumbersome and time consuming to customize.

I have used two other systems, Athena One is good, anc continues to improve based on requests from providers which I appreciate

Templates, macros, ability to use others macros, templates

too many clicks for everything, too many update videos

It is fast; automatically saves most of what you type in; does not crash very often (3-4 times/year); email support requests usually answered within 24 hours; online help knowledge base is comprehensive and it has a good search engine.

Not designed for mental health EHR, patient management, communication. Primary care clinicians say it's "pretty good" although "EPIC is better". Most behavioral health clinicians do not like Athena (based on support forum polls and Athena even admits it if your decipher the corporate-speak.) Athena rarely designs workflows, templates, and processes for Behavioral Health. They cobble together features and processes used by primary care clinicians and staff and tell us it's designed for Behavioral Health. If Athena employs mental health professionals I've never seen them on video presentations or as authors of "how to" resources or anywhere else.

Everything except RCM. It is an easy software to use.

There is so much about RCM that is bad. I am currently doing the majority of the work because it is taking 2 to 3 months for payments or correspondence to be posted. They are taking a percentage of our revenue and I am the one doing all of the work. It is completely unfair. They blame it on the pandemic but that makes no sense since this is a new problem.

One of our provider are using this for schedule a appointment to write a complete notes on Athena also we are using for patient documents it’s too secure

One of Our provider are using this for appointments booking and EHR and it’s easy and simple then we use other software to create a charge for a internal medicine

Booking of appointments is very easy Thing to do and write a medical notes also a time saving thing in billing

I would NEVER recommend this system to anyone that has any knowledge on how claims and payments should be worked and posted. It's a nightmare.

Easy to use from a claims submission stand point after that it goes down hill fast.

Do NOT let Athena co-source with you and do your claims follow up and payments!!

Never again and we look forward to changing companies. Our CSM is good and try’s to help but company is too siloed and gets in its own way, as well as never accepts responsibility.

Customer service is terrible. Getting claims processed through them is difficult and even has been delayed - but they take no responsibility for it. Their monthly billing is inconsistent and usually riddled with errors. Staff won’t send our concerns up to higher management to assist / address. “We don’t have anyone who would know the whole account” (ie silo). We look forward to changing EMRs in the next several months.

Customer service / claim scrubbing, customer service center

As stated above, since our Athena "Go Live" 2 1/2 years ago I have been able to reduced our medical practice overhead, reduce staff, all while increasing revenue, and providing to our providers and staff a manageable clinic day. At the end of each day, all messages and calls are returned to patients and the days charts completed.

I have worked with and launched four other EHR's. When people ask me what I like most about AthenaNet, I tell them that "Athena just makes sense." We have a very busy medical practice seeing over 35 patients each day in our clinic along with answering over 60 triage messages on the phone or through the patient portal daily. Since our Athena "Go Live" 2 1/2 years ago I have been able to reduced practice overhead while increasing revenue, all while providing a manageable clinic day for our providers and staff. At the end of each day, all messages and calls are returned to patients and the days charts completed. Our success has been mostly do to Athena's ability to streamline our patient visit process from check-in to check-out, plus communication with patients outside of the patient visit. Our check-in process with co-pays, scanning insurance information and updating demographics, day of visit medication updates, and insurance verification have significantly reduced check-in time. Providers are able to view imaging within the patient's chart allowing clinical decisions and patient concerns addressed during the visit, along with orders placed using custom templates and patient information printed with patient identification barcode on each page that we designed to create an efficient process at intake, exam and check-out all in the exam room. In addition, billing and dictation are typically completed either during the exam, or before the end of that day.

The CSC process needs to get better. With the new CSC Create a Case process issues and problems are difficult to get resolved with one phone call. Many times my issue needs to be escalated, not able to be solved by the person on the phone.

I like that athenahealth is always getting ahead of new changes in the medical community so that we are easily transitioned into, say, ICD 10. I like that athenahealth is really pro-active in helping the medical practices to streamline their office to meet these changes head-on without fear of being left hanging out to dry on, say, getting paid on time. I like that athenahealth provides you with a terrific support group of CSC folks who will take your calls or read your questions/inquiries and find the answers for you. I mean, honestly, I usually don't have time to go and look for the answers myself in the library and training videos (although for those who do have the time, these are great tools) so I am so very, very glad that I have a great support team behind me. I like that athenahealth allows us to share medical information for our patients, after their consent, to other medical practices and/or hospitals easily because the patient's medical care is the most vital aspect in this service community. I like that athenahealth is really very respectful of the fine line between helping the practice flourish and not stepping on toes or overstepping their role.

Lately, when using the message board for asking questions that aren't too urgent, I find that the response takes more than a couple of weeks. It used to be that the turnaround time was a week at the most. When the response is so late, I forget what my questions were and I have to go back to re-investigate so I can resolve the issue. I've read a lot of other posts about calling in and being put on hold for a long time. When we first started with athenahealth, I did not have that trouble and I was calling upwards of 10x a day on a daily basis for a while. Lately, I rarely call but thankfully, I haven't been put on hold for more than 5 minutes. And I still do like having the ability to call when my question is urgent and I can get the help I need right away.

Marketed as a product for multiple disciplines and specialties, however, does not support occupational therapy services. OTs are told to use PT templates and configurations despite (1) potential conflicts with documentation for reimbursement and (2) being initially told that OTs were a supported discipline. Account managers are not useful as they refer back to the service center for all issues. It is an endless cycle. Not knowingly, we were not set up properly before launch, and despite repeatedly telling the AM that the system wasn't sufficient for us and that we had to work harder to make it work for us, 7 months later we find that ours is not configured as it should have been. This was discovered after connecting in The community on The resource hub, which is another brush off that The managers refer clients to repeatedly, as well add o-help. There has been no response on this or even consideration of trying to keep a client happy by an account manager. The system is severely lacking and counterintuitive, and if individuals make suggestions for improvement, they are "voted on" for consideration, even if the suggestions or requests are standard in the industry or required by governing bodies. Many requests and improvements are not made. We truly question is up to date and compliant. Clients are told to create templates, or modify current (such as a standard facesheet), by coding them independently. Most medical practitioners (1) are not coders and (2) are not paying for a service that requires more time and effort than less. I was actually told by a higher level account manager that the solution could be to hire an outside coding agency to complete this task (vs it being standard in the existing product or have a dedicated person in Athenahealth that assists with coding needs). The therapist reviews in the hub are not favorable. Individuals considering purchase of system would never know how many years of complaints exist and "make it work" scenarios. Unfortunately, changing EMRs is not simple and quick and is often costly. The billing portion is fair but mistakes are still made with submission requiring extra time in "hold" and delays in reimbursement. AthenaClinicals is just horrible. There is a definite environment fostered within Athena that is brush off, dodge issues, let clients figure it out, and if they leave "oh well." We are disheartened and infuriated at the same time. If our practice had the same reviews, both public and internally, I would be very ashamed, take a step back, and wonder where things went wrong, let alone REALLY wrong. Bottomline: if anyone sees this who is considering Athena, regardless of discipline, go with another service provider. We as existing clients see ALOT in the community feedback on our resource hub. You will be entering something that you will then be prepared to get out of with excess cost.

Practice management reports and features are in abundance if that is your priority. The reminder call system does what it is supposed to. Community section in resource hub lets you know that others are just as frustrated and upset. Most of the customer service reps are very pleasant and helpful when the functionality or configuration is there; of it is sub par and missing, they do apologize.

The clinical documentation product is terrible. Supports physician- based practices vs rehab/OT/PT (though clients can see comments on product for all disciplines). Lack of quality templates that are compliant with regulatory agency requirements. Lack of feedback options. Lack of support. Account managers do not actually help to manage any issues you have with product. Very time consuming to call in for support repeatedly. Athenahealth clearly does not review feedback on community resource hub. Individuals that process Athenafax can be lazy and not process items with documents clearly identified with Athena identifiers/ printing, leaving in review for practice to handle (extra work). Honestly...too many cons to list.