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athenaOne: Pricing, Reviews, and Alternatives

athenaOne: Pricing, Reviews, and Alternatives

athenaOne is an electronic health records system designed to streamline healthcare tasks, such as managing patient records, improving hospital admissions, and optimizing medical practices. In this article, we'll share the essential facts you need to know about athenaOne to help you make an informed decision on the right EMR for you.

How much does athenaOne cost?

athenaOne does not publicly disclose its pricing details online. To get specific information about their costs, you can contact them directly here. However, based on typical industry standards, we can offer an approximate estimation of what their services might cost.

Hospitals

  • Small Hospitals (up to 100 beds): Estimated Cost: $1.5 - $2.5 million initial setup, plus $500,000 - $800,000 annually for maintenance and support.
  • Medium Hospitals (100 - 500 beds): Estimated Cost: $2.5 - $10 million initial setup, plus $800,000 - $1.5 million annually.
  • Large Hospitals (over 500 beds): Estimated Cost: $10 - $30 million initial setup, plus $1.5 - $3 million annually.

Specialty Groups and Clinics

  • Small Clinics (1-10 providers): Estimated Cost: $200,000 - $500,000 initial setup, plus $100,000 - $250,000 annually.
  • Medium Specialty Groups (10-50 providers): Estimated Cost: $500,000 - $2 million initial setup, plus $250,000 - $600,000 annually.
  • Large Specialty Groups (over 50 providers): Estimated Cost: $2 - $5 million initial setup, plus $600,000 - $1.2 million annually.

Primary Care Practices

  • Small Practices (1-3 providers): Estimated Cost: $100,000 - $300,000 initial setup, plus $50,000 - $150,000 annually.
  • Medium Practices (4-10 providers): Estimated Cost: $300,000 - $700,000 initial setup, plus $150,000 - $300,000 annually.
  • Large Practices (over 10 providers): Estimated Cost: $700,000 - $2 million initial setup, plus $300,000 - $600,000 annually.

Benefits and differentiators athenaOne

While Epic has many applications, three key areas are especially noteworthy:

  • Interoperability: Epic's interoperability solutions, such as Interconnect and Care Everywhere, are highly regarded. Care Everywhere, for instance, allows for seamless sharing of patient records across different healthcare systems, even those not using Epic, which is a level of interoperability that not all EMR systems offer.
  • Patient engagement features: Epic's patient portal, MyChart, is a significant feature that enhances patient engagement. It allows patients to access their health records, communicate with their healthcare providers, schedule appointments, and manage prescriptions online.
  • Proprietary database: Epic's Cosmos is a massive database that collects de-identified patient data from across all Epic systems. This allows for large-scale data analysis and research, contributing to improved patient outcomes and healthcare insights on a scale that is distinctive in the EMR industry.

Scenarios where athenaOne is a good choice

athenaOne EMR excels in various situations. It's particularly well-suited for small to medium-sized practices and clinics that require a user-friendly, cloud-based EMR system to streamline their operations and improve patient care. For organizations that prioritize interoperability and seamless communication with other healthcare providers, athenaOne's robust data exchange capabilities make it an ideal choice. Additionally, healthcare facilities that value patient engagement and satisfaction will benefit from athenaOne's comprehensive patient portal, which empowers patients to take an active role in managing their health.

Scenarios where athenaOne may not be a good choice

For large hospitals with complex workflows and a need for extensive customization, athenaOne's EMR might not be the best fit. These organizations may find that athenaOne's focus on simplicity and user-friendliness doesn't provide the level of customization and advanced features they require to manage their intricate processes. Additionally, healthcare facilities that prioritize advanced analytics and research capabilities might find athenaOne's offerings in this area lacking compared to other EMR systems with more robust data analysis tools. Lastly, organizations that require a high level of control over their data storage and security may be hesitant to adopt athenaOne's cloud-based system, as they might prefer an on-premise solution that allows for more direct control over their data infrastructure.

While athenaOne excels in providing a user-friendly, cloud-based EMR solution for small to medium-sized practices, its focus on simplicity and ease of use may not be the best fit for larger organizations with complex needs or those that prioritize advanced analytics and data control.

Reviews of athenaOne

Users on G2 have given athenaOne an overall rating of 3.5 out of 5. Below, we've summarized some of the key pros and cons of the platform.

Positives in athenaOne's Reviews

  • User-Friendly and Efficient EMR: Reviews highlight athenaOne's user-friendly, efficient, and straightforward approach to managing patient records and claims information.
  • Customization and Integration Features: Users appreciate athenaOne's seamless integration into patient charts and the ability to run tailored reports for each practitioner.
  • Patient Engagement Tools: The patient portal in athenaOne, which allows patients to review history, pay bills, sign forms, and schedule appointments, is praised for enhancing patient engagement.

Negatives in athenaOne's Reviews

  • Complexity and Learning Curve: Some users pointed out that athenaOne's complexity and extensive features can make it relatively difficult to learn and navigate, particularly for new users.
  • Cost and Resource Intensiveness: A few reviews highlighted that implementing and maintaining athenaOne can be resource-intensive, requiring substantial internal employee involvement and training.
  • Limited Customization in Certain Areas: There were mentions of limitations in health maintenance options and difficulties in certain customizations.

Alternatives to athenaOne

If athenaOne isn't the best fit for your organization, there are alternative EMR systems that may better suit your needs. Based on the less ideal scenarios mentioned earlier, we've compiled a list of two alternative EMRs for each scenario:

Large hospitals with complex workflows and a need for extensive customization

  • Cerner: Cerner is a well-established EMR system that offers a high level of customization and advanced features, making it suitable for large hospitals with complex workflows. Its robust analytics and reporting capabilities can help organizations manage intricate processes more effectively.
  • Epic: Epic is another popular EMR system that caters to large hospitals and healthcare organizations. It provides extensive customization options and a wide range of advanced features, making it an ideal choice for organizations with complex needs.

Healthcare facilities that prioritize advanced analytics and research capabilities

  • Allscripts: Allscripts offers a comprehensive suite of EMR solutions with a strong focus on analytics and research capabilities. Its advanced data analysis tools can help healthcare facilities gain valuable insights and improve patient outcomes.
  • Epic: As mentioned earlier, Epic's Cosmos database allows for large-scale data analysis and research, making it a suitable choice for organizations that prioritize advanced analytics and research capabilities.

Organizations that require a high level of control over their data storage and security

  • Meditech: Meditech offers both cloud-based and on-premise EMR solutions, giving organizations the flexibility to choose the deployment option that best suits their data storage and security needs. Its on-premise solution allows for more direct control over data infrastructure.
  • NextGen: NextGen provides a range of EMR solutions, including on-premise options, which can offer organizations greater control over their data storage and security. Its customizable features and robust security measures make it a suitable choice for organizations with specific data control requirements.

How you can use Tennr to get the most out of your EMR

At Tennr, we understand the challenges that come with using an EMR like athenaOne. That's why we're here to help. While we're not an EMR ourselves, we specialize in integrating with them to automate the repetitive tasks that can slow down your team and your business. Our goal is to streamline your processes, making things smoother so you can focus more on patient care.

Opportunities for automating EMR tasks

Here are a couple of places in athenaOne where bringing in Tennr could really help. Check out Tennr and sign up today to explore how we can help you!

Inbound Referrals

We can streamline how you handle incoming referrals in athenaOne. Tennr uses AI to pull patient details and then RPA (robotic process automation) to set up new patient profiles and book appointments. This not only saves time but also cuts down on those tedious data entry mistakes. Here's a quick demo of how we do this at Tennr! 👇🏾

Explanation of Benefits (EOB) Processing

We also simplify the process of managing incoming EOB (Explanation of Benefits) documents in athenaOne. Tennr efficiently identifies essential information, such as claim numbers and CPT codes, and seamlessly integrates these payments into the EMR. This enables quicker processing and reduces concerns about inaccuracies in payment details.

Patient scheduling

Small to mid-sized healthcare providers often struggle with managing unstructured external referrals, while larger ones grapple with patient scheduling inefficiencies, especially for follow-up procedures. Tennr addresses this by automating the process using patient demographics. For instance, it sends casual messages with booking links to younger patients and morning calls to older ones, effectively reducing friction and enhancing patient engagement for streamlined scheduling.