Athena Healthcare, Inc.Reviews of athenahealth.com

Today I am dropping a doctor because of Athena. I have Medicare and a supplement and paid the amount recommended by the physician to cover my deductible. I started getting emails and texts about my balance, and I verified neither of my insurances had an EOB, then I got notice and went online to look and the balance showing did not reflect payment made at time of service. Then a proper balance of 16.99 was reflected. But before I could get home and verify my EOBs, I had two more texts and three emails. So today I am dropping the physicians associated with Athena health. I do not appreciate the bombardment of harassing emails and texts before my insurance is even filed. Life is short and I have other options. Athena is not on my agenda of things to be irritated about.

This has to be the worst experience trying to pay a bill I have ever had. We have been trying to pay medical bills for months. The codes are not correct. The customer service is non-existent. We are at the point where we are giving up and not going to pay the bills. Pardon my language but this Company Sucks!

From a patient pov: I pay my bills promptly via online banking thru a major bank, and 99% of the time the provider gets a paper check w/in 5 business days. I have two providers who started using Athena. I would get constant (like daily) email a/o text nags for payment that looked like they came from the provider for any new charge but were sent by Athena. At first I responded to nags by emailing back saying, "Paid!" w/bank payment record attached - but the "Payment due!!" nags kept on coming. I tried opening an Athena account to stop the nags but found Athena's software so dysfunctional and its privacy policy so mercenary, I returned to online banking bill pay. It took several complaints directly to providers to make the nags stop. Since the dunning emails appear to come directly from the provider, Athena's obnoxious behavior makes it look like providers assume their patients are deadbeats - not a good look, esp. for psychological services. Athena's obnoxious, aggressive billing tactics reflect badly on providers already tarred by a predatory, broken healthcare system. Providers: You can do better.

This is the second time I have had to use this portal. When the phone rang to give me a code, nothing happened. I received no code. I tried several times. Finally I received the code and the portal said "This is not a valid code". Your website/portal is horrible to try to set up.

Transparency & Truthfulness Matters! Especially if you are trying to procure new clients for a high-priced system. I approached Athenahealth EHR for a Demo, following which I received a call from a company intake person that took all the info re: our practice, our requirements etc. over almost 30 min on the phone. I was led to believe that the next email I would get would be to schedule the demo. Following the initial detailed intake phone call, I received an email asking me to schedule another meeting with "senior sales analyst" to "Discuss your practice – what’s going well, where there are challenges, what goals you have for the practice/Review athena’s unique partnership model/Discuss and establish next steps" I courteously declined the meeting in reply to email courteously and very clearly explaining the reason for my refusal and my expectation: I had already discussed my needs and my practice specifics and so it would simply be a waste of my time providing the same information all over again not to mention duplication of information and requested a live demo instead where I could actually see the functionality of the system. This is the industry standard for most EHR companies I have contacted------an initial intake phone followed by a demo setup. 2 days after I declined the follow-up phone call I get a call in the morning, in the middle of a patient session from their company representative assuring me that they could schedule a demo meeting that afternoon along with the pricing modules made available at the same time if I was agreeable. I scheduled the meeting based on this reassurance. Come the time for the meeting, first off, the salesperson tells me that he's "not able to hear me!!!", in spite of the system and browser showing repeatedly that the microphone was working just fine." Let's just a few things discuss over the phone and then I can show you the practical side of it on the desktop. We probably won't need the voice function so much for the demo!!!", he says. And guess what? The guy just had me elaborate and repeat all the intake info over the next 45 minutes. THERE WAS NO DEMO. THERE WAS NO DISCUSSION/EXPLANATION OF ANY PRICE MODULES. And when I asked re: moving on to the demo, here is his answer: "Oh, looks like we have already used up almost an hour, so there's really no time left for the demo!! And any way this was a meeting more to know about your practice. I'm going to email you some demo videos so you can review them at your convenience!!" Really? You wasted an hour of my time, lying to me and leading me on to attend this "DEMO" meeting, just to tell me that you were chatting with me and that I could review your emailed "demo videos?" (half of which I probably wouldn't even understand without an in-person explanation of the different functionalities). No wonder, you couldn't "hear me." And then to top it off, he tells me that I would need to share my practice financials in order for them to give me "the most accurate, practice specific quote", and "we can definitely schedule another meeting to go over that". Seriously???!!! So, NO DEMO & NO PRICING MODULES!!!! Just lies and waste of time. So, AthenaHealth, let me tell you how to impress and procure new clients: You impress and procure new clients by NOT LYING TO THEM, by respecting their time constraints, by honoring your word and by NOT LEADING THEM ON. You do not get new clients by the shabby and deplorable behavior your employees demonstrated. This is the worst customer service that I've had the misfortune to come across. Lying and tricking your prospective clients may work in the short run to get them in to your "meetings" but that is no way to create a good impression. Your company may be "the most used EHR company" but it is the worst in customer service. I would neither recommend you nor your services to any of my colleagues. Extremely, extremely angry and never-to-be-a-client, Rita U. Goradia, MD.

Just because it’s a dirt cheap platform doesn’t mean it’s good. It is horrible for patients. I realize it’s cheap to use, but doctors should keep our medical info safe, don’t have money for a better system then use a paper chart, don’t give my info away to Athena health. I had to change my phone # They market products and services. Shady doctors use this to cloud share for mutual financial gain. It is importantly to give doctors a google or sideline number so when they give it away you don’t get your real number. Then Athena sends to other places like accu rpm, ccm companies, also for annual wellness exams. These exams are worthless ones.

I gave 1 star because zero wasn’t offered. This company should not be in business

Website will not advance when I click on the "I am a patient" selection, and keeps asking me if I am a patient. I would rather receive a paper statement and send a check than use this web service. Other medical payment sites are much easier to use and without any issue.