Does your EHR help you get paid faster and work smarter?

A checklist for small and mid-sized independent practices

If your team is still spending time on manual eligibility checks, fighting denied claims, or struggling to capture value-based incentives, your EHR and practice management system may be holding you back.

Use this checklist to evaluate whether your system supports payer integrations that actually help your practice collect more revenue with less administrative work.

Insurance verification & eligibility

Does your system:

☐ Verify eligibility in real time before the visit or at check-in — not after the visit?

☐ Automatically surface patient-specific copays, deductibles, and coinsurance?

☐ Show plan-specific pre-authorization rules before services are rendered?

☐ Help staff collect accurate out-of-pocket costs up front?

If yes: You’re likely collecting more at the point of care and reducing denials.

If no: You may be working inefficiently and unable to help patients understand the cost of care.

Claim accuracy & billing

Does your system:

☐ Auto-populate payer information from insurance card scans?

☐ Alert staff to issues before a claim is sent out?

☐ Shorten your reimbursement timeline with cleaner claims at submission?

☐ Reduce denials from missing or mismatched insurance information?

If yes: You’re likely improving cash flow and decreasing time spent on rework.

If no: You may be spending too much time correcting and resubmitting claims — and seeing long delays in getting paid.

If you can’t answer yes to most of these questions, it may be time to upgrade.

Value-based care (VBC) performance

Does your system:

☐ Surface open and potential care and diagnosis gaps before and during the patient visit?

☐ Flag suspected conditions or missing HCCs for risk adjustment?

☐ Support Stars, HEDIS, and quality measure tracking in the clinical workflow?

☐ Help your practice meet payer program requirements without extra admin work?

If yes: You’re positioned to improve patient outcomes and earn more through incentive programs.

If no: You may be missing out on VBC payments that your practice could qualify for.

Integration & scalability

Does your system:

☐ Provide built-in integrations to national and regional payers?

☐ Automatically add new payer integrations and other enhancements to your system — no custom builds needed?

☐ Deliver plan-specific information without requiring your staff to log into portals?

☐ Require little or no technical overhead to maintain connections?

If yes: You’re set up to scale without increasing your administrative load.

If no: You may not have the payer integrations that make greater efficiency possible at your practice.

Final thought

The right EHR and practice management system doesn’t just support your operations — it actively helps you reduce stress, get paid, and stay focused on patient care. If you didn’t check most of the boxes above, it may be time to upgrade.

athenaOne® checks every box.

It’s a fully integrated EHR, billing, and patient engagement solution with built-in connections to major payers across the country — available instantly to every provider on our network. Take a closer look, then connect with our experts to see how athenaOne can help you collect more of what you’re owed with less effort.