Serving low-income communities with the help of athenaOne

Salman Khan is the founder of Primary Care Solutions, a safety-net primary care practice with three locations in the greater Los Angeles area. Read on to learn how athenaOne helped his practice improve operations, boost patient engagement, and prepare for value‑based care.

Q: Why did you choose athenaOne® for your practice?

A: I've been practicing 20 years, and for the last ten years I was using some other electronic medical record. In the last few years, we realized we needed to hit these risk assessment scores and preventive measures. I think this is important not just for the practice to receive some incentives, but [also] for our community to make sure they understand all these preventive measures and [are performing them] in a timely manner. For that reason, I feel like there was a disconnect between our practice and the medical groups and the health plans. At the end of the year, I would discuss with them, ‘Where is my incentive?’ and they would say, ‘Well, you did not do this.’ I was like, ‘We've been doing everything possible.’

For that reason, I felt that maybe there was an issue with the [previous] EMR that I was using, that it was not giving me a full capacity. So, I was searching and it looked like athenahealth was a good fit. Since January of 2025 we've been using athenaOne, and I can tell that even in less than a year our operations have improved significantly from documentation and submitting claims or encounter submissions, to streamlining the billing as well as providing better patient care delivery.

Q: How did athenaOne help streamline operations across your three sites?

A: Well, one thing I really like, which we did not have before, is that athenaOne very clearly separates the departments. For example, we have clear identification in our system that we have one department in L.A., one department in Venice, one department in San Marino. But at the same time, athenaOne helped us to integrate these three locations as well. For example, if there is any work that needs to be done in one location that needs to be monitored in the other locations. So, that really helped us in this process.

Q: Has increased operational efficiency changed physician experience or time with patients?

A: Yes. I always try to educate the young physicians and healthcare individuals that keeping the work‑life balance is very important, because the burnout rate is significant. Sometimes it's very difficult, but I think athenaOne did help us maintain our work‑life balance. Charts are not as cumbersome. Now we have electronic [technology] that we use, like macros or automated decision tools, and all these things actually make life a little easier for providers to spend time with the patient. So, we are spending more time with the patient. And I believe in eye contact with the patient, I call it eye contact time. I believe eye contact time has increased since we are using athenaOne. At the same time, using technology with the text macros gives us less time to spend on the computer.

Q: How do you leverage athenaOne to keep patients engaged with your practice and with their own health care?

A: Technology – because of AI – is changing so quickly and so fast that basically it’s giving us the ideas. Even five years ago, when I was using some other EMR, I did not have any idea that this electronic medical record can help me grow my practice. I was thinking the electronic medical record was just there for me to document. But now with athenaOne and all the other businesses that are involved with athenahealth, it seems like we are partners in business. I feel I can utilize so many other entities that are basically offering pieces of the puzzle to make sure we can grow the practice.

I realized that with athenaOne [...] patient engagement has improved significantly. This is one thing I am really looking forward to. I feel like I’m in that age group that I’ve seen a big spectrum from using only a calculator coming down to a computer and now we’re talking about AI, so I’ve seen quite a few things in this journey and I believe I’m at the point where I’m all up for utilizing all these new tools and artificial intelligence to improve the services we’re providing. For that reason, I think athenaOne is helping and can help more to be involved in other aspects to grow the practice.

Q: Why is value‑based care important for the future?

A: The definition of health includes your spiritual as well as your emotional as well as your social determinants of health. So, when we talk about health in general, that is the reason why we need to really work on population health management. We cannot just help our patients in one particular area. [...] I truly believe that it's not just a matter of, whatever amount of services you are providing you are going to get reimbursed for that. I believe it's beyond that. It's not just about providing services, it's all about how much care and quality you can provide to our patients. For that reason, value‑based care is very important. The patient needs connection with the primary care physicians, to their specialists, to the hospitals when they get discharged for reviewing the medication. All these things come into value‑based care. When we emphasize value‑based care, patient population health care improves significantly.

Q: What tools or data help you practice value‑based care?

A: As I said earlier, with time we are evolving practices. The health care system is changing and our practices are evolving. The most important thing I really enjoy these days compared to 15 or 20 years ago is that if I need to have a meeting with my providers and discuss how the progress of any provider is going, platforms like athenaOne can give us very good reports. It is not just about patient care, the time with the patient, or documentation. It's about provider quality assessment. For example, how many patients you have seen in a month, what imaging studies you ordered, what labs you ordered. With this technology and especially the way we are moving and learning more and more about the technology, it is important that behind the scenes when we see the reports at the end of the month and discuss in our provider meeting, it is very clear who is performing well and who is not. These gadgets are really helping, not just patient care but helping physicians and practices gauge their performance as well.

Q: What forces or changes do you see impacting healthcare and your practice in coming years?

A: Well, as humans we all have this urge to keep improving. [...] So, we need to understand how we can utilize technology to improve the practice. At this moment in the United States, technology-wise we are really improving. We are bringing AI into our practice to improve the quality of care. For example, if a person who has resources can get an MRI of the brain and get diagnosed very quickly as compared to someone who does not have these resources and is waiting for authorization for so long, that can delay the process. I heard the president of AMA’s story [at THRIVE 2025], and the way he was diagnosed and how quickly it was treated was amazing. I would like this to happen [for everyone]. There are many obstacles and roadblocks, but it's not impossible. I truly believe with AI and technology advancement we can achieve that goal.