athenaOne Reviews

“Clunky workflow and poor support”

Pros

It has a patient portal and I really like the saved findings and saved phrases features. It also interfaces with some of our labs.

Cons

Orders that get faxed to us go into a queue and you can't access them in real time. It's too easy to accidentally scan a document to the wrong patient. Getting help on the phone isn't convenient for a busy office. Other EMRs have better support. But my biggest gripes are having to pick a diagnosis instead of an ICD-10 code, not being able to link medications to multiple diagnoses, the way medication reviews work and how hard it is to review historical documents or amend notes.

“Turns simple tasks into 10-step faxing marathons”

Pros

I like that it tells you what quality measures you need to meet. I also like that you can take a photo of something for the chart and upload it straight from your smartphone but that's about all the positive things I have to say.

Cons

Faxing back and forth with our nursing homes is a joke. It takes almost 10 steps for every single fax. When we do labs in-house, we enter the lab, complete it, save it, and close it, then an hour later it's back in a "bucket" to be closed again. When I complain about all these steps, they tell me it's a "checks and balances system." Everything we need to do in our office has three or four extra steps compared to our old system. They promised to handle all our billing... well, that's a joke too. They only bill for the obvious things and then write off everything else. We're losing money every single day because of this. There is honestly not one thing I like about this software. I've told people that the next time I'm job hunting, if they tell me they use Athena, I'm walking out. I never want to deal with this company again.

“An excellent partner for a growing practice”

Pros

I love that it combines billing, EHR and practice management tools. They charge a percentage of our revenue, so if we don't get paid, they don't get paid that feels fair. It's a really flexible system with so many options for expanding and customizing. Plus the customer service is excellent.

Cons

There's actually very little I dislike. But when a problem needs their "Rules" team, it can take weeks to fix. For example, when our state Medicaid changed their claim format, it was a real problem that it took Athena weeks to get compliant.

“Easy with great support”

Pros

It's easy to use and can be set up the way our practice likes it. The support from Athena is great, they really do what they can to help with our individual needs.

Cons

When we scan information in, it can be really difficult to find specific things later. Also the pricing is a bit much.

“Powerful automation for a small team”

Pros

For my new small practice, it has multiple features that let me run with a lean staff because of all the automation. I love the connectivity through the online portal and being able to upload new patient paperwork and it saves a ton of time.

Cons

It's like any new system with a lot of features and it just takes some time to figure out. We're still adjusting and editing things to make it work for our specific specialty and practice.

“AWFUL service!!!”

Pros

I really like its code searching feature.

Cons

I have too many complaints to list. Here's the short version: their customer service is poor, the system can't be customized for our practice's needs, their reps drop claims before our internal team can scrub them, payments get posted wrong and they adjust patient balances incorrectly.

“Unreliable and misleading”

Pros

I can pull the assessment and plans from previous notes into the current one. It seriously cuts down on my documentation time.

Cons

I was told Athena handles the billing and makes sure claims are clean before they're sent out. That's not true at all. Athena doesn't really "do" billing; they just act as a clearinghouse and do posting. They sometimes even change things on claims incorrectly, like the place of service which causes rejections. I was also told I was ready to go live, only to find out that alot insurance info and provider NPI numbers were entered wrong which held up claims for months. On top of that, I was told they had pediatric templates following Bright Futures guidelines. Those didn't exist. Our pediatrician had to build every template from scratch. Now my patient visits take longer, I've had to hire a biller and a scribe to handle the extra work and Athena never compensated me for the revenue I lost while they were holding up my claims with their mistakes.

“Does everything, too complicated”

Pros

It's a single, unified system that does everything. It's very all-encompassing and works well for a broad number of specialties, not just primary care.

Cons

It tries to do way too much and has gotten way too complicated. Because of that whenever you need help with almost anything, you have to create a case and wait. I found this super frustrating when trying to fix accounts receivable issues like unposted payments, especially since Athena takes a percentage of our revenue and is supposed to be our partner in this. I saw very little evidence of their billing team actually doing anything on the front end to help.

“Great faxing but billing is just okay..”

Pros

The electronic scanning and faxing is genius! It handles so much electronically that it actually helped us trim down our staff.

Cons

The billing is just okay. My biggest issue was that claims would sometimes get stuck in "Athena Hold," and I wouldn't even know they were there until it was too late to file them. After a bunch of phone calls, Athena could never give me a good reason why they weren't sent. They also just write charges off after a while which isn't good. The patient charge screens are really hard to understand and when Athena's team works a claim, they're no help. They just leave pointless notes and don't fix the problem. It takes our billing lady one phone call to get it sorted.

“Much faster than others”

Pros

It is much faster than others we've used. The templates load super quickly which saves me a ton of time.

Cons

First round of collections is automated by Athena. A lot of the time, the notes they put on the accounts don't match what's in the patient's chart. For example, they'll say "referral needed" when the referral is already right there. It might be because we're still new to the system but it's a major problem for us right now.

“Unnecessarily complex and non-intuitive”

Pros

The EMR system is okay but it's definitely not superior to its competitors, including some of the free EMRs that are out there.

Cons

It's not simple at all. When I was learning it, I had to call customer support for everything. I even had to call just to double-check that I had done things right because I learned early on that even if it�looked�right, it often wasn't. I was either in the wrong "area" or I missed some unnecessary second step. There are also several places where you can leave notes that look like they're for Athena staff but nope! Those notes just sit there for you to look at. If you actually want Athena to do something, you have to call them (and you'll probably get a support center in India, just so you know).

“Fast tool”

Pros

I really like that a lot of the collections process is automated. It provides a much faster follow-up for initial claim rejections.

Cons

Setup process feels so tedious and the first group of collectors that Athena provides doesn't seem to be trained very well.

“Overall a Great product”

Pros

I really like the billing system, as the claims can be scrubbed before submitting to the insurance. The product is easy to navigate and saves a lot of time

Cons

Athenas team manages our denials and I feel they are not doing a good job. We have to correct their mistakes and feel that we should take this service from them.

“No customer support”

Pros

The sales person was the reason why we bought this system. Nothing that we were shown is operational in the system at this point.

Cons

It is extremely hard to work on. Make sure they offer you a trial before you decide to invest even a single dollar in this company

“Good for billing. Not too much for Clinical”

Pros

I like the practice management component of the product and the software really helps us improve the collection

Cons

The doctors hate the product and feel there are too many options and clicks. They feel the product can be improved and are always complaining about the product

“Recommend it fully!”

Pros

The product is easy to use and allow us to easily access some of the key components like scheduling and labs on the go.

Cons

There are some issues when it comes to printing and system at times are slow

“Most features are top notch. Report retrieval is difficult”

Pros

The best feature is the integration between EMR and practice management. The price of the product is good and affordable

Cons

We are a large practice and at times feel that the product is made for small to midsize clinics.

“Better than Cerner and Practice Fusion ”

Pros

I started using Athenahealth EMR when I opened up my own practice. I had used Cerner in the hospital which I hated while my wife had been using Practice fusion which was super user-friendly but very basic. It was the easiest one-stop-shop I could find. Athena was easy to learn and did not add any extra time to my documentation as most EMR systems tend to do. From meet/greet/take copays, finish intake, perform and document exam, treat the patient, proceed to check out and initiate billing - I could do all that or more in 15 minutes or less with no extra staff needed. What I love the most about Athena is that you can work on multiple charts at the same time. I have used their customer support at times and have found them to be knowledgeable. 90% of the issues get resolved within an hour of being initiated which is rare in the medical software world.

Cons

The cost, of course, is an issue. This is an expensive EHR system for a small practice let alone a single provider like me. I’d rather have that problem rather than the problem of being stuck with a system that does absolutely nothing for my practice. I also feel that sometimes Athena’s process of sending patient statements out every month is random. Some payments fall through cracks which is not something a practice like me can afford. And I hate that at times I have to keep an eye on patient statements to report to Athena that they seemed to have missed a few important reminders to patients who owe me a large amount of money.

“Brilliant software. ”

Pros

My experience with Athena is almost 7 years long. It took us a while to transition into the system and learn the ropes but the software has been worth it in the long run. The customer support is great and easily accessible whenever I need an issue addressed. The system offers a lot of options and customizability to fit your practice needs. If done right, you will feel it was designed especially for you. All the data is within quick access for me, all the menus and charts edited to my preference. It takes me seconds to locate any information, no excessive clicks required. The built-in Epocrates in the prescription section is a huge benefit.

Cons

In the event that you dont type, you wont understand the value of any EMR. I mostly use HPI, notes and Assessment fields to compose/type a similar note I would write previously - now its intelligible. there is no longer up-to-date coordination with the chart. There has only been one instance of system downtime in my experience. Luckily, the staff at Athena was extremely responsive and we were running again within no time.

“I have used three EMRs till date and Athena is by far the better option. ”

Pros

Documentation has been made easy with recent upgrades. Good tool for communication between staff and patients as well as amid offices for referrals. Trends functionality is very helpful with vitals/labs better than the previous edition.

Cons

Duplication is a major issue for me. Numerous duplicates for lab/consultation reports exist in the system. Document sign-offs take time and at times it is difficult to determine where a document has been filed.