User Reviews Overview
About athenaOne
athenahealth, recently ranked #1 by 2023 Best in KLAS for athenaClinials Ambulatory EMR for 11-75 physicians and athenaIDX practice management, provides cloud-based services for electronic health records (EHR), revenue cycle...
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- Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
- Company size: 5,001–10,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
easy to use
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.
Pros
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.
Cons
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.
- Industry: Hospital & Health Care
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Bells and whistles
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.
Pros
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.
Cons
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.
Alternatives Considered
EpicCare EMRReasons for Choosing athenaOne
The technology was not keeping up especially in the electronic exchange of records area and making sure we'd have all the tools we needed to meet MIPs.Reasons for Switching to athenaOne
More freedom to do what we wanted with the product. We're a clinic and Epic was more of a software to use for a hospital system.- Industry: Hospital & Health Care
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Not Tested Prior to Release- Lost Features
On 7/14, I was notified by a member of our clinical staff that the entire practice would need to go through this training, that it wasn't only for the nurses and physicians. I called Athena for verification and was told that only nurses and physicians needed to follow the training guides.; that it would not affect Billing or any other department. When I pulled the individual within my practice who pointed this out to me to discuss the issue with the Athena rep on the phone, we pointed out that there was special training specifically for the Front Desk Receptionists. It was also mentioned that the Classic view would go away, leaving a Non-Clinician and Clinician view. These affect the entire practice. The rep changed his answer to it may be beneficial to let your receptionists know of this training, but no one else needs it. I went home that even and sat through all of the training. Out entire staff did need to review this information, clinical staff needed Clinical information while clerical staff needed the Front Desk piece because it touched on many things that everyone uses: how to find documents, how to find tasks, how to change views, etc. Friday I sent all clerical staff an e-mail letting them know that training needed to be completed by Monday evening as we had been mislead by Athena, that it wasn't just clinical staff that needed this training, that this new rollout would affect everyone. 7/19 was chaotic because the print margins were reset on many computers to enable shrink to fit with this update, which was not selected before. All of our forms were printing miniaturized until this was figured out. Formatting changes made prior reports read as garbled nonsense. Diagnosis codes were taken away from an area we reference on a daily basis. Instead of going to the chart and clicking on something we want to print (two clicks), it now takes at least 5 clicks (Chart>Visits>Date>Double Arrow>Full Encounter>Print). Half of the time, this does not even print and I have to open up Google Chrome to which it prints a few words and the top two lines of the dictation on page one and the rest of the dictation is on page two. Instead of being able to print 1 page (old facesheet) that has the demographics, insurance, and upcoming appt. on it for our facilities to load our patients into their system for injections, it is no longer an option. When you try to print similar page, the text overlaps and prints on top of each other. Summary: many useful features removed.
Pros
1) You can access the phone number from the chart.
2) You can reference visit notes while creating a patient case.
Cons
Having to click multiple places to get to a document that you used to be able to automatically view and print is extremely inefficient. Many useful features that were used on a daily basis have been completely taken away. Athena reps were also rude and untrained. One of our employees actually had to show them how to do something. This should have been tested in a test environment before rolling out live. IT should talk with the daily users prior to making a significant change like this.
Top athenaOne Alternatives
- Industry: Hospital & Health Care
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Modular Flexibility and 24/7 Access with Value
Great experience for over 8 years now; many of my peers wish they had switched to Athena once they see the capabilities of the product.
Pros
I have seen this software grow over the years and now have friends using it within multiple different services lines in the healthcare industry. Some of the key pros I can think of quickly include:
- Flexibility, (features and design allow of different service locations, and different physicians within the same practice to see/edit EMR information to fit the individual)
- Transparency, (live EMR, Practice Management, Quality Management information is real time)
- ACCESS, simultaneous information access by multiple personnel in the same (or different) practice location
I personally use the product to manage primary care, imaging, laboratory, and physical therapy business lines simultaneously
- Communication with team members and patients by methods of preference (patients can select how they prefer to receive communications (phone, email, text or all)
- Customer service, both online and by phone access the clients get answers to questions quickly.
- Fantastic Online training syllabus. Staff and watch interactive videos to learn new (and more efficient) techniques to use the software in daily tasks. The training material is available 24/7 and moves at the pace the employee prefers.
- Remote access, key team members and physicians can access the information from anywhere at anytime greatly improving communications.
Cons
Advancement requests,or recommendations for improvements, from clients are rated and scored by clients across the system, which is a great design!
Recommendations from the User Community require time to develop, grade, prioritize and implement. Eventually, the highest costumer rated recommendations get attention and are implemented with accuracy; just takes time.
Reasons for Choosing athenaOne
I had Medinformatix and Praxis previously. The reasons I switch to Athena were many but primarily: -to improve the information/documentation workflow for the physicians; giving the physicians more control of the process and how they view the data. - gain access to better reporting and transparency on the financials, practice management side - modernize the communication with patients via a certified HIPAA portal -achieve complete compliance to government quality standards (e.g. Meaningful Use, MIPS, etc....) -active online / offsite backups - instance access to alternate (live) server should downtime ever be experienced (for me, only twice in over 8 years)Switched From
MedInformatixReasons for Switching to athenaOne
The overall package just overwhelmed the competition at the time.- Industry: Hospital & Health Care
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Athena EMR
Overall, very good EMR. Great price. Poor support and improvements on hospital platform
Pros
Lots of billing intelligence and assistance.
Cons
They focus heavily on the ambulatory side, and not as much on the hospital side.
Also- long wait times for customer support.
Alternatives Considered
CareTrackerReasons for Choosing athenaOne
We needed to have the clinic and hospital on the same platformSwitched From
CPSI EHRReasons for Switching to athenaOne
cost- Industry: Education Management
- Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
- Used Weekly for 6-12 months
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Review Source
AthenaOne - not living up to its namesake
I have used AthenaOne for one of my specialty doctors, after having used a number of other patient portals from different providers, and I would say this one is the worst - it's not terrible, but there's a lot better options available
Pros
It's nice to be able to communicate with my doctor through messaging as opposed to messages back and forth with their support staff.
Cons
It honestly just has I would say an "ugly" look and feel to it - it's not easy to navigate and isn't that helpful when many of the features are turned off
- Industry: Hospital & Health Care
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Nickels and Dimes!
Some good, but everything is too automated and what's important easily falls through the digital cracks.
Pros
Admittedly, the software is easy to use and offers meaningful use suggestions. The five step patient visit is simple to understand. The patient portal is nice, however, the patient facing portion could look more modern. Billing is easy from a practitioner standpoint. It also is starting to integrate with other EMRs so occasionally we can pull labs and imaging from other participating systems.
Cons
Setup was arduous to say the least. Also, once claims are submitted, that's another story. I was sold that this software was all-in-one. They LIED. This is NOT the software for a small practice. They act as if I have an army of billing people when they told me that Athena was all I needed! For example, there was functionality that we needed to be aware of to find an important document from medicare. NO ONE told us and this document languished in some digital box. If we were a hundred person organization, I could pay someone to sit and manage the 20 or so boxes where they put communication. As a result, we got kicked off medicare for THREE months until I found out and remedied the cause.
I was assigned a 'customer success rep' and had to find out who it was because she never scheduled a call. The previous THREE other reps were no better.
They treat small practices like we don't matter.
If you have less than 100 employees, FIND ANOTHER EMR.
I'm in the market for another.

- Industry: Hospital & Health Care
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Not a good choice for Behavioral Health (psychology, psychiatry, counseling, etc.)
Pros
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.
Cons
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.
- Industry: Hospital & Health Care
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
TERRIBLE revenue cycle management
Pros
Everything except RCM. It is an easy software to use.
Cons
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.
- Industry: Hospital & Health Care
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Appointment booking to EHR
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
Pros
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
Cons
Booking of appointments is very easy Thing to do and write a medical notes also a time saving thing in billing
- Industry: Hospital & Health Care
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
run away...very fast
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.
Pros
Easy to use from a claims submission stand point after that it goes down hill fast.
Cons
Do NOT let Athena co-source with you and do your claims follow up and payments!!
- Industry: Hospital & Health Care
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Choose Another EMR!!!
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.
Pros
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.
Cons
Customer service / claim scrubbing, customer service center
- Industry: Medical Practice
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Works well...
Hi. Quite surprised to read other reviews actually. Im a pod... starting in private practice with emr "Cerner"... hated it. always have, always will...although it has been at least 2 yrs since I've seen Cerner in action. My wife, another doctor, actually uses practice fusion...one of the many free online web based servers. I started with athena bc to me, starting out on my own (literally), it was the easiest one-stop-shop. Learning the system is not hard, it is quite easy. From beginning to end, I can literally -meet/greet/take copays, finish intake, perform and document my exam, treat the patient, proceed to check out and r/s and finally to billing- in all of...maybe 10-15 min...thats with NO staff. Done, seen, treated, billed! I like that. If a new patient, will be bit longer of course with intake, BUT that step is very rate limiting depending on who you have doing it.
I find ease, use and flow to be great. Rarely glitches, but yes there are some. Can easily work on 3-4 charts at once.
Pros
ease of use, it really is good.
work on multiple charts at one time
rarely glitches or down time
Athena is certainly closer to a "practice fusion"...
very user-friendly..set up more like navigating to/through a web browser/site then "medical-based program"
can use your own templates, but they claim to have many (i ONLY use my own- never even once tried athena's)
CS is NOT like most reviews are stating... I have used the Athena CS/help/claims helpline many, many, many times, and 90% of the time, issues gets resolved quickly.
Cons
the cost of course. the larger you are/more pts/billing, perhaps better the rate you will get.
that is the only thing for me really.... do I want a free based software that I may or may not like, and then pay for a biller? or pay for my own cloud-based billing software....? and then, of course, you have to check up on everything.... hmm. Its less worry and less need for staff if you ask me. Again, I just started out and although I have a steady flow of pts, my opinions may change if I were seeing 45-60 pts/day with a staff of 5-10 behind the counter....
For me, now, I am more than comfortable with Athena. I like them and I like the program.
Only real con I see (which I think u can manage/manipulate/pay for on different basis) the pt statements. Meaning, pts that owe the office money... Athena apparently sends out THREE (3) statements per month (..think ?this is correct). The issue is, the office has NO CONTROL over which statements go out. For a real example, I had a pt call the office re his bill/statement for $. Another patient called in for one that had a balance of $ of course probably copays and coinsurance, however, Athena completely misses sending other statements for much larger balances. So, it's kind of random. I have multiple pts with an outstanding balance or even $!
- Industry: Medical Practice
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
5 Star Review
Our office went live with Athena Communicator and Collector in September of 2013. We had previously used 2 other billers and schedulers/management systems at that point and I have to say we are all glad that we chose Athena. The customer service department and our implementation team were beyond helpful. We appreciate that Athena is ever changing, and always looking to improve the ease of business and quality of care. As we know, no product is ever perfect, but Athena comes pretty darn close. The team at Athena actively listens to concerns and suggestions from their customers. I have dealt with many companies who "understand your struggle" but can't do anything about it or "are very sorry, but that's just the way it is". Athena, is NOT that type of company. They have interactive message boards that you can talk to other practices having issues and also Athena team members, so together a plan can be created to alleviate the problems you are having. Not to say EVERYTHING can be as perfect as you want it, but there have been enough changes in Athena where the direct action was taken from a concern or complaint that makes us as a customer feels valued and understood. A real testament to Athena should be that we looked at their Clinicals product in 2013, but our provider didn't see enough of what he was looking for to change from our current EMR to Athena Clinicals at that time. However, at the end of 2016 we revisited the idea and did some more demos, the Clinical product has changed so much (in a good way) that we have chosen to switch and are looking at implementation in March of 2017. All of our office staff and our providers feel that Athena is a solid product that helps us streamline our workflows and provide better patient care. We are very excited to embark on our next Athena journey and couldn't be happier with the products and support.
Pros
Ease of Use, Rarely any system downtimes or system issues, Receptive customer service and account managers, Transparency you can see everything that has happened and who did it
Cons
This product is the most costly that we have used, however, we have definitely made more in revenue by using Athena than not.
- Industry: Hospital & Health Care
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Small to medium business EHR Solutions
Overall, this is a decent solution. We have grown exponentially as a non-profit and it's quite possible that we could have gotten a bigger product like Epic or Allscripts, but Athena fit what we needed at the time and changing it would be... intense. It has ushered our care into the digital age, and I think if you are a small or medium sized business Athena would fit the bill nicely for all of its features and usability.
Pros
We use AthenaHealth every day. The portal is easy to use and implement (users simply configure a browser, login). Their help desk is pretty decent. For a small to medium business looking for an Electronic Medical Portal for their staff to use, Athena would make a great alternative to larger options like Epic or Allscripts. It supports proprietary devices (payment processing, or card and check scanning devices) which can be a pain but makes purchasing and insurance scans and patient registration and charting easy overall. Updates seem to be fairly streamlined and well-communicated (happen quite often) and don't seem to impact care unless it's a larger update. Athena has a backup domain (if their site does down) as well as stack updates for troubleshooting down times with different components of the EHR which is VERY helpful.
Cons
Most changes are up-voted, which means that they are voted on by other agencies trying to get their changes implemented as most valuable. Things like Billing and Patient Care do not streamline well enough yet together--they work in two separate constructs, so our billing is constantly having to rework the way that they bill to fit the way Athena works with Patient Care. Troubleshooting with our medical assistants can sometimes be complex with Athena, so for more complex issues, the help desk might take you to two or three different folks to solve an issue. The Help Desk has become more complex making it harder to navigate ticketing. It was simpler to put in a ticket prior to the changes.
- Industry: Medical Practice
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Disheartening, despite ok start, progressively worse over time (less than 6 mos) and continues
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.
Pros
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.
Cons
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.
- Industry: Hospital & Health Care
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Report Data is NOT true data
Overall experience is one of much dislike to having to "vote" to get improvements. If they wanted to build a practice customizable EMR, they missed the mark gravely. Changes happened in November to the UDS reporting capability. Reports for clinical data were a mess, unreasonable, and horribly incorrect. They need much help with writing the logic in their reporting criteria.
Pros
Facesheet shows all of the pertinent information on each patient before an encounter is open.
AS LONG AS the clinical staff have updated the chart correctly.
Cons
I am stating this as a personal opinion that does not represent my present or past employer. I have used this EMR for FIVE (5) years in front office. back office, management, and reports. There are too many workarounds for the providers and support staff. Their logic in reports is insane. Data does not pull accurately, so charts have to be manually checked to see if a measure is actually satisfied. Calling the CSC in FIVE years, has resulted in ONE (1) helpful specialist, the others always have to put in a further review case, which never gets answered logically. I ask specifics and am given back elusive answers that leave me feeling inept, and I know it is this system, not my experience or understanding. ACO and UDS reporting is LOGICAL. The number of patients in a measure, like tobacco screening and cessation, is the denominator. The number of patients that have been screened for use and cessation education is the numerator. Easy to understand. Except Athena report logic doesn't pull accurate data. I have had to manually look at charts to see if the work was done by the clinical staff and change my data reporting that way before I report it out, and as of yesterday, out of 564 charts that "need data" in this report, 75 out of 100 satisfied the measure within the chart but not within the report. This is one example of the problems with the Athena logic, and why I would never recommend this to any FQHC that needs to report data to CCPM, ACO or HRSA.
- Industry: Hospital & Health Care
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
EHR for Doctors Office
We really have not had any issues on the EHR side with Athena. I have run into some issues on the billing side and processing of payments, etc.
Pros
The implementation was easy to set-up. Athena was a big help in creating forms and letters. The tempplates are easy to set-up and modify as well. Once the forms have been created you can also make changes to them as well. The order of the check-in through check-out process is set-up in a way that is easy to navigate and goes in order of how you treat your patient. The best part is that Athena takes care of the MIPS, MACRA, etc data that is needed for Medicare without adding additional work for the staff. I like the fact that there are less documents that require scanning, since all of our faxes go directly into the system and are attached directly to the patient's record. The reporting options are also very good with this system.
Cons
I really don't dislike anything about the software, other than it would be nice to track letters that are sent to the patients. So you can print off collection letters or follow-up letters and it would automatically record that a letter went to the patient, without you having to make a notation.
- Industry: Medical Practice
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
truly the easiest EMR/billing system to use
5 years ago, during the quality reporting for reimbursement, Athena made it so simple and easy that i was shocked to learn that it took a fellow friend 2 months to complete her reporting where it took me 30 minutes. providing patients with detailed information on their insurance benefits and the life of claim creates better communication and cohesion for the clinic/patient relationship. as a provider, the easy customization for templates, use of templates and the ability to actively follow medical orders (referrals, lab orders, pharm scripts) and their order created-results received "circular completion" making quick response corrections easier as well. having online doctor information, calculating by type of physician, practice, distance from your location and easy searches is a delightful feature for scribes and physicians alike. i have used an number of EMR systems, web-based and online, and this is by far the best i have ever used.
Pros
from the clerical input, insurance checking/info response, patient input, dx order features, sign off and the visual, detail of the LIFEspan of a claim, orders require "circle completion," the ease of quality reporting requirements...i could go on an on with the amazing functionality features of this program.
Cons
it is expensive, but it eliminates the need to hire for areas of administration. what I would pay for 1-3 people to do, Athena provides an entire team of people, thus creating a quicker turn around time for appeals, the need to call insurance companies. the implementation period is overwhelming, and going live will make you question yourself and your desicion. but, so worth it.
- Industry: Medical Practice
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Amazing ease of use for providers.
EMRs are dinosaurs and no other industry would accept the dysfunction that we do (because CMS forces us to). Athena updated in May 2016 and now it is even more functional. I have a solo practice. I have ADD and scanning up and down the page to add details was exhausting. Now the sections (Review/HPI/ROS/PE/A&P) are at the top and I can go back and forth easily. If the patient gives me more details during the A and P then I just click on HPI and add the details, then click on A and P again. No scanning. While I am working on the progress note, I can go to diagnosis list, med list, lab and x-ray results, previous visits without going out of the note. The day is much less painful. Unfortunately, I am paying way too much and they will not renegotiate so be aggressive before you sign up. Customer support is good. As the provider base has grown, the support gets less effective. I know more than many of the support staff. They tell me things cannot be done and I have to figure out, often by mistake, how to do what I want. The implementation coordinator did not understand much of what she was doing and after implementation, it is almost painful to fix basic things. Much of it has not been fixed. The first year I almost went under financially and I spent all my savings to survive. My revenues are still not what they were. It did not help that Athena lost $ worth of checks and did not help me get them re-issued.
Pros
Ease of completing progress notes. Really really easy referrals. Accessibility of lab and imaging results. Consult notes not lost. Nothing lost. Confirmations by the system. Eligibility checked repeatedly. They have an interface with all the labs already so you don't have to pay to reinvent the wheel.
Cons
I hate the letter format and cannot get it fixed. The financial piece promised much more than it actually does.
- Industry: Medical Practice
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Frustrating!
I started working w/Athena in Aug 2016. Since then our Admin has been advising me to call or web chat, search online & use the search features Athena has to offer. I have NEVER gotten a question resolved by calling. I end up walking the "helper" through the features & page. This was very upsetting. I've been put on hold for 20 minutes at a time while an "advisor" looks up a solution in their manual. As a result, I hung up in frustration. I then received an e-mail confirming my problem had been resolved. What a joke! That seems like it is just to appease the numbers needed. There are no training manuals, no courses to take & definitely nobody to teach a person how to use this program. A rep. who no longer works for Athena set us up years ago. This is not geared towards a specific practice, which is even more frustrating. Hopefully, you can respect the time I took to write this review & improve your program. It would be great to receive training as well, or at least an instruction manual.
Pros
billing features are simple; insurance program automatically runs insurances to see if they are active
Cons
I've been in Ophthalmology for over 15 years. As a scheduling manager, the features are not user-friendly, as I have worked with 4 different programs. Look to NextGen for template applications & features. It would be great to implement them to Athena. There are color coded columns, ability to apply templates over templates without taking out exception days, ability to write a VISIBLE book note at the top of the doctor's schedule to alert the schedules, etc. Also, the features include looking a multiple doctors schedules at a time and even ability to view several different books or multiple doctors!
- Industry: Medical Practice
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Review Source
Horrible please look at someone else
Pros
I like the fact you can Athena fax records but you can only fax 10 pages at a time through it. More than that it said it was to large to Athena fax. I like that it uses a scanner for ID cards and ins cards. Just keeps a pic of it, does not upload info from the cards while scanning
Cons
Most everything! Still need a biller! I don't know what really I am paying for with this large % they are taking from me.. We work most claims our self. When they say you have a manager to help, they just refer you to the csc.. Which is the 1800 hotline help. Most times they don't know the answer and 1 question takes 15 min to solve. They always say "let me put u on a 5 min hold while I find an answer"
When I need to schedule it is not user friendly. I have to delete an apt to reschedule. Not a good flow.
Now about refunding overpayments. The office has to do it! Again! This is the help Athena states.... When a claim develops a credit balance, the OVERPYMT kick code is applied and the claim moves to OVERPAID status. Then I need to review the claim and investigate whether a payer intends to recover the funds and then determine the appropriate response.
Refund
Takeback
Unclaimed payment
Clients are responsible for working claims with insurance credit balances (overpayments). This includes contacting the payer, reviewing EOBs, and initiating takebacks or refunds.
There is no support at all!!! Everyone points the finger. Manager says call csc.. And csc cannot get answers.
We did not get paid for 3 months when we started back in December 2015. And once I can actually get money and fill my savings again for my business I will be finding a new Emr! The worst financial decision I ever had was going w Athena and believing they are good with billing.
Once you start with Athena you feel trapped because you have to stick it out or you could go bankrupt. I will be glad to talk to anyone wanting to go with Athena and tell you about all my documented problems.
- Industry: Medical Practice
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Athena health very time consuming to use, lack of direction provided from athena health as to...
Athena has been a real disappointment and hassle to deal with. I spend more time on Athena EMR then I do with patients. This was not the case with out other two EMR systems. We just wanted to combine billing and patient's notes in one system thus we switched to Athena.
Pros
It is an EMR system to use, can communicate with patients on the portal but have not way of avoiding portal communication.
Cons
Lack of knowledge when you call for support at Athena. Many times I call for assistance and the have no answer and have to get back to you.
Inefficient.
They state you make more money with them since they have high rate of patient collection. However, we have more patients then ever before with outstanding bills and Athena fail to follow up on patients and these unpaid balances. There is no support for that.
Once you sign up for Athena they drop your support and will switch you randomly to new managers to start all over since they cannot follow through. It takes weeks to have a support session with anyone that has some knowledge of the system. They have too many clients and not enough support. After a while, you become numb to it all and give up hope that it will be ever efficient and make practicing easier.
- Industry: Medical Practice
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Athena review
Pros
Athena was the first EMR I used when converting from paper charts. There was a huge learning curve and only because of the expertise of a well trained hospital employee were we able to survive the transition. It slowed us down but our notes and billing were improved.
Cons
I wish you could open 2 windows at once like other EMRs. The reason I would never recommend this system is because they were unable to help us merge charts from one athena chart to another. We were forced to change our Tin number when our hospital was acquired by another hospital system. They said they couldn't carry information like consults,lab trends,imaging reports and pretty much everything we needed to make a smooth transition. I could understand if we were changing form Epic to Athena. This made no sense and in the ever changing medical environment with acquisitions happening on a frequent basis I would be very wary about using this system. It has been a complete disaster for me and everyone I know in our medical group.
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Review Source
AthenaHealth Changing to "Steamline" is a nightmare!
We have used Athena Health since 2010. We use their EMR, Collector and Communicator products. We had been pleased for 6 full years until last week...
Athena changed their EMR software functionality to a new software platform. It is complicated, inferior and not user friendly. It is awful. We depend on functionality of a EMR to help us move quickly through charts. In the past we could open several windows and use multiple monitors to work on different charts at once. Another great functionality of the past was the "mini charts" which gave you a quick look into a chart without going through the entire document...not available anymore. Why?
Athena has basically copied AllScripts. Maybe they are hoping to be bought out from them and they are switching to their platform...no idea...but may be a good guess. Maybe there is a merger along the way.
We have complained...nobody with executive authorities has called us. I wish Mr. J. Bush would call us and explain how this new streamline is actually better than the one before... there is no way he knows what we do as an Internal Medicine office everyday. The Athena of old was superb, the new Streamline product they rolled out this week is awful.
Here is what you should know. If you purchased a cloud base product, the company should not be making changes that are drastic enough to impact your employee's hour. Your payroll must be respected. This is not the case with Athena. They don't care and have you locked up in a contract and there isn't anything you can do about it. This is almost a behavior of Anti-Physicians.
We never requested this change. We have to pay extra hours for our staff to get acquainted with the new system. Athena isn't paying for this.
Also, we have recommended this software to several affiliate physicians and they have signed on...we are owed credit for the incentives and we have to run after our money...been going on for several months now.
Compare this product to AllScript and find the cheapest service. If you don't like AllScript, then find a new EMR system that has been developed by Physicians, not some young IT with no medical (Clinical Office that is) experience.
In the world of software, consumers are given the choice to update their software or not. This should not be any different. I think most people want to update any software system when they are given the reasons why they should...and they agree that it will help them.