Mali & Mali Pediatrics drives efficiency with athenaOne

Mali & Mali Pediatrics, based in Sterling Heights, Mich., has grown steadily from a small family practice into a thriving pediatric group with 12 providers. When Dr. Vik Mali joined the practice in 1999, it was his father’s solo operation. Now Dr. Mali is leading its transformation.

Mali & Mali Pediatrics partnered with athenahealth in 2011. Over the years,  athenaOne® has supported the independent practice’s growth and dedication to patient care.

Delivering true value and equipping independent physicians to stay competitive

For his independent practice, Dr. Mali follows a straightforward philosophy: “Value is quality divided by price.” When it comes to athenaOne, he says, “I realize the quality that I’m getting.”

athenaOne’s all-in-one practice management, revenue cycle management, and patient engagement solution provides independent practices with the operational infrastructure to compete with larger health systems.

Instead of succumbing to cost pressures that often cause independent practices to join larger systems, Dr. Mali believes athenahealth offers a viable alternative. “I think athenahealth will allow physicians to say, ‘You know what, I think I can do this independent thing because I have the tools at my disposal to make this happen,’” he says.

High interoperability, low administrative overhead

When Dr. Mali adopted athenaOne in 2011, the EHR landscape looked very different. MACRA had just accelerated adoption, but most electronic health records vendors were still on-premise — requiring expensive on-site servers, IT staff, and constant maintenance. Cloud-based systems like athenaOne were new at the time, but Dr. Mali saw the long-term upside.

“What spooked me a little [about other solutions] was hearing about the costs of servers and IT, the idea of having to replace servers, the idea of having to shut them down and upgrade everything at various times,” he recalled. By contrast, with athenaOne, “we just have not had to make that investment.”

Continuous evolution without IT burden

That early bet on a cloud-native EHR platform has paid off. Because athenaOne is delivered as SaaS, Dr. Mali has continuously received new features without ever having to schedule downtime, install upgrades, or replace hardware.

He points to insurance eligibility checks as a clear example:

“It’s easy to take for granted the way the athenaOne system alleviates burden. When I first went to athena, they checked insurance eligibility a week before the visit, then it was three days before, then a day before, then an hour before. Now, it’s real time.”

For him, that kind of seamless evolution is the core benefit of SaaS: the system keeps improving in the background while his practice stays focused on patients.

Interoperability that connects the ecosystem

Beyond day-to-day efficiency, Dr. Mali sees interoperability as essential to running an independent practice. Because athenaOne’s cloud-based platform comes with built-in integrations and industry-standard connections, his team can easily share data with labs, payers, and other providers without the headaches of custom development.

“Other health systems and specialists use different systems they need to interface with, and what athena allows us to do is just play nicely in the entire marketplace,” he explained.

This kind of seamless data exchange with other providers enables coordinated care and eliminates integration headaches.

Meeting patient expectations in a digital-first world

Patients, too, expect their care experience to mirror other digital interactions. “A lot of our parents are young people,” Dr. Mali explained. “They’ve grown up with smartphones, they’ve grown up with the internet, and now they’re having kids. And they have these expectations that they can interface with us as they would so many other platforms they use daily.”

That’s why athenaOne’s patient engagement tools—including the Patient Portal, appointment reminders, and secure messaging—are so essential to his practice.

Beyond these core features, Dr. Mali is excited about extending athenaOne further with customizations possible with the open API approach and the athenahealth Marketplace. He sees new opportunities to connect with emerging health technologies such as wearable devices and appreciates how easy it is to integrate these into the core athenaOne platform.

Healthcare in general, how do we unlock more value? And I believe it’s in independent practices, and it starts with athenahealth and their clients.

Efficiency across all elements of care

Another key to thriving as an independent practice without compromising care is achieving both clinical and operational efficiency.

By reducing administrative burden, clinicians can devote more energy to the patient in front of them while also protecting work-life balance and avoiding burnout. For front desk and billing staff, efficiency translates into revenue and growth, allowing practices to move from a maintenance mindset to a growth one.

Dr. Mali described how he athenaOne supports his own clinical efficiency: “My notes are done before I’ve even walked in the room, because I’ve done my chart prep and I’ve used athenaOne® Voice Solutions. So, I just have very few edits to make.”

With athenaOne Encounter Prep, providers can review comprehensive patient information, including labs, prior visits, and specialist notes, in advance of the visit. This preparation can be completed hours or even the night before, giving clinicians flexibility in how they manage their time.

athenaOne Voice Solutions further accelerates documentation in the athenaOne mobile app by enabling hands-free, accurate note-taking during or after the patient encounter, reducing charting time and increasing face-to-face interaction.

For Mali & Mali Pediatrics, these tools have driven measurable impact: an average documentation time of just 9.38 minutes per encounter (compared to the athenaOne average of 17.7 minutes) with more than half of their providers closing encounters the same day*.

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Get the details behind the numbers. Read Mali & Mali Pediatrics Case Study.

Operational efficiency has been just as transformative. Dr. Mali highlights athenaOne’s automation for real-time eligibility checks, claims management, and document processing. He says, “I don’t think people truly understand how magical document processing is, how many practices with other systems have full-time employees who open mail, scan things, and make sure they end up in the right provider’s box.”

With these tasks automated, Dr. Mali explains that “all of these weights are lifted off of you” freeing staff and clinicians alike to spend time focusing on the patients.

Partners in innovation for 14 years

Healthcare innovation moves fast, and the landscape today looks very different than it did when Mali & Mali Pediatrics first partnered with athenahealth 14 years ago. What hasn’t changed is the strength of that relationship. As Dr. Mali put it, “We’ve been thrilled – athena has been a big part of our success.”

For independent providers looking to grow without sacrificing quality or control, athenaOne offers that same foundation. Reach out to discover how our solutions can help your practice streamline operations and deliver exceptional care.