Staying connected with patients as a one-person practice

Instinctive Wellness partners with athenaOne® to streamline work

Instinctive Wellness is an intentionally small practice in Maryland where Deb Reid serves as the solo practitioner and owner. After struggling with the challenges of managing an independent clinic in the modern healthcare landscape, Reid recognized that she needed a partner who could help her navigate the complexities. She felt athenahealth was the best choice for her “one woman show” because of the suite of features that automate key workflows to take work off her plate.

Since that transition in 2019, Reid has relied on athenahealth to empower her to focus on what she loves—helping patients—while still enjoying a balanced life. As she puts it, athenahealth “makes it so much easier to be a good provider, and still have a life, and still feel like your patients are getting what they need.”

It’s cost effective, and it’s going to save you time. You’re going to have more of a life.

athenaOne ® Patient Portal: Organizing chaos and reducing burden

One of the key features of athenaOne that helps Instinctive Wellness stay efficient while serving their patient community is the Patient Portal. By encouraging her patients to use the portal, Reid has streamlined scheduling, check-in, and other administrative tasks without taking on extra work. According to her, “athenahealth makes that happen by having such amazing portal capabilities, so that I can do the medicine and not as much admin.” This efficiency really pays off: “It saves me a full-time equivalent, and so the athenahealth rates are cheaper than much more staff.”

The portal’s robust toolkit and asynchronous nature lets Reid manage her time better, helping her set boundaries that are crucial for her work-life balance. She sets the scene of before and after patients leveraged the portal: “If you can picture a provider trying to see a patient while the front desk is saying you have a phone call and the nurse is asking you a question... having the portal be asynchronous, it just creates a framework out of chaos.”

The athenaOne Patient Portal allows for templated and automated patient outreach, significantly reducing the manual work needed for patient communication. Patient digital engagement tools such as automated outreach messaging and live operator services can help organizations stay in close touch with broad patient communities without feeling overburdened by tasks.

As her practice grows, the benefits of this efficiency become even more pronounced. Reid says, “One of the best gifts of athenahealth is it is scalable to big or little practices. So, what I like to say is, it's the Cadillac plan without compromising cost.”

Reid knows all too well the struggles many physicians face with administrative work, and says, “As a provider, we often work hours every night or weekend doing paperwork. Anything that athenahealth has done to improve that is just such a gift, that we get time back.” While focusing on patient care and outcomes is what Reid loves, she says that “there’s just as many hours to do in the non-clinical part” which can lead to clinician burnout. But according to her," athenahealth automates so much of that, I get my weekends back.”

Expertise and support, when and where you need it

Reid's partnership with athenahealth was especially crucial during times of difficult change management. In January 2021, a change to extended billing codes for telemedicine visits proved tumultuous for Instinctive Wellness. Each insurer required different combinations of billing modifiers, and there was no unified guidance, so for almost three weeks Reid’s claims were denied as she manually called insurers looking for guidance.

Concurrently, athenahealth’s national data insights allowed us to rapidly analyze claim rejections across thousands of providers and identify which combinations of medical codes and modifiers were being accepted by each payer, and within three weeks athenaOne incorporated updated claim guidance. All of Reid’s denied claims were successfully resubmitted and quickly paid. Reid said, “athenahealth took the reins and fixed it, and I’ll never forget that.”

This partnership goes deeper than athenahealth supporting Instinctive Wellness from an administrative perspective, as both organizations believe strongly in the power of technology and innovation to improve patient care. Reid knows that technology like artificial intelligence (AI) can transform the way you stay connected to patients, and she stays on the cutting edge of adopting new tools as they are developed. With athenahealth’s Marketplace and commitment to innovation, Reid can tap into new and exciting technology in healthcare.

For example, Reid shared that she has been excited about AI-driven Marketplace vendors that she can directly integrate into athenaOne. She recognizes the potential of AI in healthcare to support clinical tasks that she doesn't need to drive, such as an AI avatar that can perform some of the initial patient intake and documentation on her behalf. She is dedicated to not only managing her business, but also ensuring it thrives, stays ahead of the curve, and delivers best in class care to patients.

Reid shared how, from her perspective, partnering with athenahealth helps her stay agile in that way: “athenahealth, in my five years, has been improving every year. This last release, I was having a little happy dance because there were five major things [that improved my workflows],” she shares. She was particularly excited about features related to secure messaging, updates to athenaTelehealth™, digital patient forms for enhanced self check-in, a customizable Patient Banner, a page to track alpha and beta engagement, and an Android version of athenaOne mobile.

Unlike EHR systems that stay stagnant, athenahealth actively listens to providers' feedback and adapts its offerings, and the cloud-based system enables continuous improvement. In thinking about the future with athenahealth, Reid is excited: “To see where we can be more efficient and have less chaos and more time for our own lives, more time for patients, is such a huge gift.”

Learn more about athenaOne, today

For anyone considering athenahealth, Reid has a straightforward message: “It’s cost effective, and it’s going to save you time. You’re going to have more of a life.” In a field where hours can be demanding and burnout is common, this freedom and balance are priceless.

Instinctive Wellness’s journey with athenahealth highlights the tangible impact of technology on supporting small, independent practices. By embracing efficiency and innovation, even as a small clinic, Reid has built a practice that not only meets her patients' needs and serves her community but also allows her to reclaim her time and well-being.

Get in touch to learn how athenaOne can help you do the same.