How data integration levels the healthcare playing field

How independent practices can use healthcare tech to compete on a corporate level

The rise of corporate medicine has been one of the driving factors in healthcare over the past decade. Mammoth transactions like Amazon's $3.9 billion purchase of One Medical and Walgreens' $9 billion acquisition of Summit Health/City MD may grab the headlines, but private equity's continuing interest in physician practices and specialty care present an increasing challenge to small, independent practices.^1.2

Overall, the balance continues to shift toward healthcare as a bottom-line focused enterprise versus the calling that led many to medicine. It's also about care feeling more impersonal in a corporate setting versus in an independent practice.

Patients want convenience and personalized care. Staff want stable work environments and competitive compensation. And everyone craves connection—patients want to feel like more than just a CPT code, while clinicians want to reduce administrative and technological obligations so they can spend more time with patients.

The role of accountable care organizations

As we move deeper into the era of corporate medicine, many independent practices are considering all options, including alternative payment models (APMs). For many smaller practices, that may mean joining or forming an accountable care organization (ACO).*

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services define an ACO as a group of doctors, hospitals, and other health care professionals that work together to give patients high-quality, coordinated care and services.³ The goal is to improve health outcomes while managing costs. ACOs may operate in a specific geographic area and/or focus on patients with a specific condition.

ACOs can participate in value-based care programs that distribute shared savings across the group of providers. Importantly, ACOs can also provide administrative and technological support beyond what most smaller practices can manage on their own.

Regardless of APM participation, today's successful independent practices view technology as an important equalizer — helping them compete in a healthcare environment increasingly shaped by corporate scale. athenahealth offers healthcare solutions designed to support high-quality care while helping practices remain financially competitive.

Reducing infrastructure costs with cloud-based EHR systems

Savvy practices know that minimizing expenses is important to remaining nimble in today's medical marketplace. Traditional on-prem Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems require a significant investment in hardware, servers, and data storage, as well as ongoing maintenance and system updates.

athenaOne® features seamless data exchange across the largest connected network in healthcare. Its self-updating software means customers are always on the latest version, eliminating the downtime associated with scheduled updates. athenaOne's enhanced interoperability also helps close care and diagnosis gaps, while unlocking insights that provide opportunities for practices to improve their performance.

Letting automation help with administrative tasks

AI-native athenaOne, with its EHR capabilities, can deliver value across practice operations, improving efficiency, accuracy, and financial performance. Built-in features like automated claim scrubbing can improve clean claim rates, which reduce rework and accelerate reimbursement.

When claims are denied, athenaOne's automated rule engine updates to ensure other customers don't struggle with the same denial. This feature helps providers achieve increased practice efficiency.

How data analytics aid clinical and financial outcomes

In this era of corporate medicine, independent medical practices often struggle to find the time to analyze their data in a meaningful way due to the challenges of gathering data in a disconnected system and often a lack of visibility into their analytics. That's what makes dashboards that provide actionable insights so valuable: gaining easy access to the right data at the right time.

Data analytics, or the process of examining large datasets to identify trends, patterns, and insights, helps enable better clinical and financial decision-making. All-in-one healthcare solutions with AI like athenaOne are built to support visibility that allows for continuous improvement.

For example, athenaOne's foundational Advanced Intelligence Layer can comb through vast amounts of data in the network, including EHRs, lab results, imaging, and historical diagnoses, then surface relevant data where they're needed. The result: better clinical decision makings to support improved outcomes.

athenaOne also offers a built-in revenue cycle management (RCM) solution that automates processes to improve speed and accuracy. It also exchanges and sorts data to ensure encounters are properly captured and cleaner claims are submitted faster. athenaOne Insights Dashboards track financial success metrics, capture snapshots of the practice's financial health, and proactively monitor data for potential business challenges.

The right telehealth platform enables broader reach

The COVID-19 pandemic showed clearly that telehealth benefits both patients and clinicians alike.

For patients, telehealth lets them:

• See their clinician from home or work.
• Avoid taking time off from work or arranging childcare for an appointment.
• Get appointments sooner, which can support chronic disease management.
• Reduce geographical barriers to accessing far-flung specialists.
• Reduce infection risks by limiting exposure to in-office germs.

Similarly, telehealth can benefit clinicians in numerous ways, including allowing them to:

• See more patients with less time needed between appointments.
• Reduce no-shows since patients are less likely to miss appointments.
• Expand their patient community within their licensed state(s).
• Gain flexibility in how they schedule their workdays.
• Provide more frequent follow-up appointments to patients with chronic conditions, which may support better outcomes.

athenaTelehealth, athenaOne's embedded telehealth offering supports both patients and clinicians with a seamless encounter experience. Users can access scheduling, patient outreach, video conferencing, documentation, and billing — without ever leaving athenaOne.

athenaOne EHR workflows are also customizable. Pre-built workflows for specialists and common encounter types can provide helpful clinical information when it matters most.

Get to know the athenaOne advantage for your small practice

While small independent practices are competing against care sites backed by the resources of large corporations today, there are ways to help even the playing field. Schedule a demo to see the difference athenaOne can make for your practice.