athenaOne vs Meditech Expanse
Last Updated:Our analysts compared athenaOne vs Meditech Expanse based on data from our 400+ point analysis of EHR Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.
Product Basics
athenaOne by athenahealth is a cloud-based healthcare management solution tailored for practices of various sizes, particularly in fields like orthopedics, urgent care and primary care.
High scores in reporting (100), payment management (92) and coding (95) reflect its robust functionality in tracking financial health, automating payments and reducing claim rejections through accurate coding.
While many users appreciate the platform’s fast system navigation, customizable workflows and responsive customer support, there are some drawbacks. Costs tend to increase over time, which can be challenging for practices with tighter budgets.
Additionally, some users report that navigation, while fast, can be complex, with multi-step processes required for simple tasks like switching between patient charts and billing.
The system has delivered impressive results in real-world cases. For example, Peachtree Orthopedics experienced a 240% increase in time-of-service collections and SCP Health reported a 67% reduction in eligibility-related denials.
These results highlight the platform’s ability to boost revenue and efficiency, making it a solid choice for practices that need strong financial oversight, coding accuracy and patient engagement tools.
Our Research Process for athenaOne
Using our internal data, we compared the platform with alternatives like DrChrono and eClinicalWorks. After carefully analyzing the scores for each feature, we identified its key strengths.
We couldn’t get trial access to the platform. But that didn’t dampen our spirits. We dug through user reviews and case studies to learn more about the system. Read on to discover our findings.
Product Assistance
Product Insights
- Analyze Data to Make Informed Decisions: In our analysis, the product achieved a perfect score of 100 for dashboard and reporting capabilities, more than competitors like DrChrono (88). It helps you:
- Access ready-made and custom reports that break down everything from outstanding balances and transaction histories to revenue trends and write-offs.
- Create reports across multiple data areas, bookmark frequently-used filters and even set up automatic delivery to keep the key numbers coming in on your schedule.
- Gain a clear view of patient payments, insurance trends and overall financial health.
- Manage Patient Payments With Real-Time Tracking: With a top score of 92 in our analysis — outperforming competitors like DrChrono at 81 — athenaOne’s patient payments management features streamline the payment journey end-to-end. How?
- It enables direct ACH payment acceptance, generates detailed patient statements with comprehensive billing information, and provides clear access to payment histories and current balances.
- It helps you track payments, manage unallocated funds and monitor overdue or upcoming balances, while electronic reminders keep patients informed and engaged.
- Reduce Medical Coding Errors: In our analysis, the system scored 95 for its medical coding capabilities, excelling in assigning CPT, E&M, HCPCS, ICD and NDC codes. This helps you document services and diagnoses accurately, reducing claim rejections due to coding errors.
- Pre-Appointment Management: The platform scored really well for features that make managing appointments and patient information simple. Doctors can easily schedule appointments, send reminders, collect patient details online and track follow-up care. Patients can book, reschedule and pay for appointments, fill out forms and view medical information through a patient portal, all in one place.
- Interoperable Care Coordination: Leverage embedded EHR-to-EHR links and health information exchanges to share and access comprehensive patient data across specialties, providers and care settings. Eliminate care gaps, enable better collaboration and patient continuity with complete interoperability.
- Optimize Practice Schedules: Use a single scheduling module to detect conflicts across the practice network and reduce appointment cancellations and patient waiting times.
- Improve Patient Outcomes: Identify and manage health risks, care gaps, overdue checkups. Visualize trends across admitted patients and entire patient populations. Track vital chronic patient data through wearables, get notified of alarming values and remind patients of overdue visits for timely interventions. Develop targeted programs to improve patient outcomes.
- Maximize Revenue: Minimize claim denials and maximize reimbursements, manage copays, collections and follow-ups and increase revenue at the point of care. Drill down into financial data and accounts receivable for a bird’s eye view of practice finances.
- Enhance Patient Experience: Improve the patient experience by letting them access clinical resources, communicate with providers and actively participate in their care with a dedicated patient portal and engagement tools. Reduce patient waiting times or offer convenient virtual care visits. Track patient satisfaction through robust reporting.
- Improve Accuracy: Reduce errors associated with data entry and scanning. Extensive patient records and clinical decision support also improve clinical accuracy.
- Make Informed Decisions: Measure practice progress and make informed decisions using data-driven insights on various aspects and metrics, including population health patterns, revenue cycle and meaningful use measures.
- Compliance: Remain compliant with MIPS or advanced payment models with interoperability, quality measures including population health, analytics and surveillance and required modules including telehealth, patient portal, immunization and patient registries and more.
- Mobility: Access patient data, get notified, operate basic tasks and coordinate care remotely with Android and iOS apps. Also allows monitoring of vital signs and specimen collection at the point of care.
- Ease Clinical Burdens: Provides various modules and templates to aid physicians, nurses and other healthcare employees in their daily operations and reduce their cognitive loads.
- Medical Coding: Access certified coding support for accurate ICD-10-CM and CPT coding, ensuring alignment with current coding standards. Benefit from automated coding suggestions and alerts for potential code mismatches, reducing coding errors.
- Claims Resolution: Manage denied and rejected claims with tools that offer real-time claim status tracking and detailed feedback on claim issues. Receive automated alerts and guidance for correcting errors, allowing faster re-submission and reducing denial rates.
- Insurance Verification: Automate patient eligibility verification before appointments to ensure coverage and minimize denied claims. Receive alerts for potential eligibility issues, enabling front-office staff to resolve discrepancies early.
- Billing Rules Engine: Automatically flag and correct potential issues in coding, documentation and claim formatting, increasing first-pass acceptance rates. Continuously update rules to stay aligned with payer requirements and industry regulations, minimizing rework.
- Telehealth Billing: Use special codes that tell insurance companies this is a virtual visit, so they know exactly how to pay. Automatically add these codes when creating bills so that they match what insurance needs. Add a “place of service” code that shows the visit happened online, not in a clinic or office. Make sure bills reflect that the service was remote, so insurance pays correctly.
- Authorization Management: Initiate same or next-day authorizations for urgent situations requiring immediate care, with a two-hour initiation window for same-day requests. Track and manage prior authorizations directly within the billing system. Automate follow-ups for pending authorizations to get necessary approvals before you provide the services.
- Dashboard: Access financial performance metrics like days in accounts receivable, total receivables and unpaid claims. Track claim statuses from submission to payment in one centralized view.
- Reporting: Use customizable reporting tools to analyze practice financials, claim performance and payer trends. Generate detailed reports on revenue metrics including payer performance, patient collections and claim aging for strategic planning.
- Patient Portal: Let patients view medical histories, sign documents, pay bills, manage appointments and more using mobile devices. Physicians can communicate with patients through messaging, notes or even video calls.
- Interoperable Patient Charting: Access comprehensive patient data that follows patients across specialties and care settings. Perform faster patient charting with evidence-based templates, speech recognition and efficiency dashboards. Add notes and checklists and filter data across specialties.
- Clinical Decision Support: Provides relevant formats and information for providers to aid in clinical documentation and decision-making. Take effective quality measures using its clinical rules database and guidance toolkits.
- E-prescribing: Review insurance coverage, medication management plans and histories to electronically prescribe medications and authorize refills — even for controlled substances.
- Virtual Clinical Assistant: Give verbal commands to the virtual assistant to navigate the interface and aid in various clinical processes, like pulling up patient charts, reviewing medications, displaying readings and more.
- Patient Surveillance: Leverage extensive condition and health maintenance registries and analytics to predict at-risk patients, care gaps and population patterns. Take preventative measures using its centralized care coordination and clinical monitoring tools.
- Claims Management: Capture accurate charges, verify insurance eligibility, pre-screen claims for conflicts and errors and receive authorization and missing data notifications to avoid claim denials. Track claims, follow up on denied claims, analyze denial trends and success rates to improve acceptance rates.
- Billing: Get an overview of the practice revenue cycle and financial health with comprehensive reports. Track and collect copays and outstanding patient balances. Provide accurate comprehensive billing statements.
- Scheduling: Handle patient appointments, meetings and conferences through a single calendar. Track patients throughout care settings with multiple patient lists and wait times from a single interface.
- Patient Portal: Provide clients with a single patient portal to self-schedule appointments, access records and health resources, track vital signs, manage immunizations, request prescription refills, fill up forms, pay bills and self check-in.
- Telehealth and Remote Care: Offer convenient telehealth visits that fit into existing practice schedules. Remotely track patient vital signs.
- Data Visualization: Drag and drop to visualize real-time clinical, operational and financial data insights on customizable dashboards. Drill down for granular details.
Product Ranking
#71
among all
EHR Software
#114
among all
EHR Software
Analyst Rating Summary
Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data
Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data
User Sentiment Summary
1000 reviews
athenaOne has a 'good' User Satisfaction Rating of 75% when considering 1000 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.
Awards
SelectHub research analysts have evaluated athenaOne and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Integration and Extensibility.
Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews
athenaOne brings a lot to the table for healthcare practices, with tools that make managing payments, billing and patient records a lot easier. One of the platform’s biggest strengths is its reporting capabilities, where it scored a perfect 100 in our analysis.You get both ready-made and customizable reports that break down everything from outstanding balances to revenue trends, so it’s easy to stay on top of your practice’s financial health. Plus, you can bookmark filters you use often and set up automated deliveries.When it comes to handling patient payments, the platform really shines, scoring a 92. It lets you accept direct ACH payments, send out detailed billing statements to patients and provide a transparent view of payment histories.You can send automated reminders, so patients know when a payment is due — no surprises, no confusion. This level of tracking and transparency is something you don’t always find, even in other competitive platforms like DrChrono.The system also tackles one of the biggest headaches in healthcare: coding accuracy. It scored 95 for medical coding, which means it does a solid job of helping providers document services and diagnoses correctly.We’re talking support for everything from CPT and E&M codes to ICD and NDC codes, which are essential for reducing errors in claims.Of course, no system is perfect, and some users have noted a few downsides. Navigation can be a bit of a chore, with some tasks requiring several clicks to get done. While some users appreciate the comprehensive interface, others feel it’s a bit too complex for everyday tasks, especially when you’re constantly switching between patient charts, scheduling and billing.There are also occasional stability issues — some users report crashes, particularly after software updates. But the good news is that customer support is generally responsive, so they’re there to help troubleshoot.Overall, though, the platform has shown tangible results. Just look at Peachtree Orthopedics: they reported a 240% increase in time-of-service collections and SCP Health saw a 67% drop in eligibility-related denials. Those are serious wins for any practice looking to boost revenue and reduce paperwork headaches.
Is Meditech Expanse really so expansive that it pushes the boundaries of what an EHR can be? While Meditech Expanse has garnered a devoted following, a deeper dive into user experiences over the past year reveals a mixed bag, particularly when compared to its rivals. Users consistently applaud Meditech Expanse for its user-friendly interface, often drawing comparisons to navigating a streamlined website. This ease of use, coupled with its reputation for robust customer service, makes it particularly appealing to healthcare facilities transitioning from older systems or seeking a less daunting technological leap. However, a recurring gripe amongst users is the lack of transparency in pricing. This opacity surrounding costs, often involving hidden fees for data migration and customization, leaves a bitter aftertaste, especially for smaller practices working with tight budgets. Furthermore, while Expanse boasts interoperability, some users find its customization options, particularly in specialized fields like mental health, to be somewhat lacking compared to competitors like Epic, which offers more tailored solutions. In essence, Meditech Expanse is like a reliable but aging car – it gets you where you need to go, but it may lack the bells and whistles of newer models. Its strengths lie in its user-friendliness, dependable customer support, and robust interoperability features, making it a solid choice for hospitals and practices prioritizing ease of implementation and use. However, its opaque pricing structure and limitations in advanced features might give larger institutions or those with niche requirements pause.
Screenshots
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