The real ROI of athenaOne® for small practices

That budget EHR may cost more than you think

When you’re running a small practice, you’re constantly aware of how every decision you make affects your bottom line. That includes making sure you’ve thought through the cost of your EHR and practice management software. It’s understandable to be price-oriented, but if the buying decision starts and ends with sticker price, you may not be seeing the full picture of what your Healthcare IT solution will cost you every day.

If you’ve sought business services of any kind in the past, you already know that the lowest bid doesn’t always correlate to the most appropriate solution — or one that will serve your changing needs over time. As you compare the cost of EHR and practice management software for your small practice, we’d like to provide some food for thought… and it won’t cost you a dime.

“Cheaper” EHRs aren’t always a bargain

At first glance, it’s easy to be tempted by low cost EHRs that promise low monthly fees, lightning-fast onboarding, and a simple interface. For small practices, that’s an appealing pitch: less disruption, lower price, fewer features to master. But beneath the surface, many of those “lightweight” systems come with hidden costs beyond the monthly subscription fee:

• Having to source and maintain additional vendors for billing and claims management
• Bare minimum practice management tools that don’t support reporting
• Third-party telehealth tools that don’t automatically integrate with the EHR
• Bolt-on apps for patient engagement
• Missed revenue from denied claims or inefficient workflows

It’s not just your money that adds up; your time is valuable, too. Opting for rudimentary EHR and practice management software could mean you and your clinicians and staff are spending more time on tasks like these – and less time on revenue-generating work:

• Configuring software to suit your needs
• Training your team on the new system
• Repetitive manual tasks to submit claims and manage denials
• Troubleshooting issues and figuring out which vendor to call

Looking at price alone may seem like you’re comparing apples to apples, but it doesn’t take the whole story into account. athenaOne takes a different approach by including valuable features and services designed to support clinical efficiency and financial performance. For practices that can see past the initial sticker price to the bigger return on investment, that’s a huge gain.

One platform. One partner. Fewer headaches.

athenaOne isn’t just electronic medical record software. It’s an integrated clinical and financial engine designed to help you simplify your operations, grow your revenue, and minimize your administrative burden. Every decision we’ve made, every feature we build in, and every hour of human support we provide is there to help you optimize your financial and clinical performance.

That includes:

• Best-of-breed revenue cycle management (RCM) — fully built into our solution and communicating smoothly with the clinical and patient experience
• The convenient patient engagement features your patients want and need — from the patient portal to the mobile app and telehealth interface, all native to the solution instead of being pieced together from different vendors
• Interoperability that works from day one — including more than 277,000 pre-built direct connections to labs, hospitals, HIEs, pharmacies, imaging centers, registries, payers, and others across the healthcare ecosystem¹
• Built-in tools for quality program compliance and value-based care — helping you succeed with any healthcare delivery or payment model

Instead of paying for multiple systems — and managing them all yourself — you get everything in one seamless platform, backed by a dedicated team. When you need help, you make one call, not several to various vendors. Imagine the time and effort you can save.

If you have to spend hundreds more on add-ons just to get the level of service you need, and you still lose revenue each month, you’re not saving — you’re falling behind.

What does athenaOne offer that bargain EHRs don’t? Plenty.

When your search for an affordable small practice EHR begins and ends with the sticker price, you may end up skipping over some important features you’ll wish you had — or paying extra to bring your software up to par with your needs. Let’s consider what may not be included with a low cost EHR:

Paying a monthly fee per user can sound budget-friendly. But if you have to spend hundreds more on add-ons just to get the level of service you need, and you still lose revenue each month due to poor billing performance or inefficient workflows, you’re not saving — you’re falling behind.

When you put your all into delivering the best possible patient care every day, it’s not fair to you, your team, or your patients to settle for the minimum service level from your EHR and practice management software. With athenaOne, these features are included — and everything just works from day one.

Onboarding with athenaOne: why investing time up front is time well spent

It’s true: athenaOne isn’t plug-and-play the way some EHR and practice management packages may be. But that’s because it’s not a cookie-cutter solution. We configure your implementation to suit your practice’s unique needs. That means spending time with your practice up front to understand how you work. The way we see it, you shouldn’t expect anything less from your Healthcare IT partner.

We also train you and your team so you can get up to speed as efficiently as possible. Instead of handing you a login and a video tutorial and leaving you to learn the workings of your new Healthcare IT solution on your own, athenahealth delivers the right level of care and handling to set you up for success from the very start:

• A dedicated implementation team who learns your workflows
• Personalized training and setup
• Data migration and system configuration handled on your behalf
• An Onboarding Success Manager to oversee your go-live experience
• A Customer Success Manager who works with you post-launch to help optimize your performance

This approach takes more time up front — but far less of your time. And it ensures your system is optimized for your practice from day one. That’s how we help you drive efficiency and performance as soon as you log in the first time. Because the only thing worse than a long onboarding... is doing it twice.

The ROI adds up fast with athenaOne

Your investment in athenaOne for your medical practice can deliver real returns – not just in terms of dollars collected and saved, but also in time saved, increased efficiency, refreshed productivity, and ultimately the peace of mind you’ll enjoy, knowing your practice has what it needs to thrive through change.

With athenaOne:

• You could increase collections by 2–6% and decrease overhead costs by a similar percentage²
• You could see a 91% decrease in document processing by using our Document Services AI workflows,³ and also cut down the hours you spend on manual billing and follow-ups, patient outreach, and more
• You can avoid integration fees and having to keep track of support contracts with multiple vendors
• You can gain operational visibility to manage and grow your practice intelligently
• You can benefit from expert support from day one, including onboarding support, training, and a dedicated Customer Success Manager helping you optimize your financial performance
• You’ll always have the latest version of our cloud-based software, every time you log in, without having to seek out updates

athenaOne. Designed for small practices. Ready for what’s next.

Running a small medical practice doesn’t mean you must limit yourself to small software. Whether you plan to stay at your current clinician headcount or you’re planning for bigger things, athenaOne is designed to scale with you. For maximum flexibility tomorrow, equip yourself today with the solution that future-proofs you in any healthcare environment, works with any payment model, and supports any direction you want to evolve and grow your practice. athenaOne is a perfect fit for small and medium-sized practices with:

• 1–20 providers
• Plans to remain independent
• Minimal IT resources of your own
• The desire to improve patient outcomes and business performance

If you’re running a small practice, you don’t need more tools to manage. You need fewer. Fewer systems. Fewer vendors. Fewer headaches. So you can focus on delivering excellent patient care without the extra hassle and administrative work. Healthcare providers agree with us… which is why athenaOne has received the Best in KLAS award for Overall Physician Practice Suite for two years running.⁴

It’s time to think beyond the sticker price. You have a vision for your medical practice. athenaOne is the partner to help you realize that vision.

Ready to see how athenaOne compares to your current system?

Evaluate your EHR software with our checklist of questions to ask your vendor.

Or book your athenaOne demo today.