athenaClinicals vs. Kareo Practice Management

Works well for family med and peds primary care. Would not be well suited to wound healing/hyperbaric medicine practice in current configuration as the specific documentation requirements of wound management and hyperbaric treatments don't mesh well with the layout and forms that I observed.

Incentivized

I can't imagine who it is appropriate for- unless you could care less if you get prescription refill requests from pharmacies, send portal messages to patients but they have no clue they have a new message to read. It's not ideal for large or small practices. Allow them to overbook your schedule with "new patients" that are on insurance plans you don't even accept for a 15 minute time interval...So if this the flow of your practice- this is the EHR for you. Otherwise, steer clear.

• Quality programs - able to see what measures are outstanding for the patient
• Reporting - able to report on multiple financial reports as well as clinical information
• Standardization of clinical information - the system forces users within the same specialty to use the same templates (as a starting point), therefore it is easier to standardize protocols and treatments of care

Incentivized

• The integration with the clearing house is excellent.
• Setting up a practice is straightforward and fast..within 24 hours.
• Reports can be exported to Excel which is particularly helpful for forecasting trends.
• Customization of billing codes makes Kareo functional for any type practice.

Incentivized

• The schedule needs to be improved. You should be able to see the schedule in a day, a week , in a month view and be able to schedule directly from the schedule.
• It's difficult to name items because they are traditionally corrected very quickly

• It does not auto balance accounts which would be helpful for us when patient's have a credit on one line but then a balance on another line.
• The reports could be broken down a little more detailed

Overall the system is good. Actually, this was supposed to be the universal EMR when it came out during the Bush administration.

Incentivized

They are always there. Friendly and organized.

For a surgery center application, it is much better to use a system that is uniquely designed for surgery centers. Using Athena as a less than desirable work around has been a frustrating experience.

Incentivized

Kareo is plain and simple. NextGen always says you get what you pay for, however, NextGen is expensive for anyone and Kareo does the same thing for a fraction of the cost. Kareo gives our time management back to the office personnel. Everything is user-friendly, which NextGen could be if it didn't have so many steps to complete on task.

Incentivized

• Kareo has enabled our billing company to increase revenue for our clients by 10-12%.
• The efficiency of entering data has allowed our company to reduce staff.
• Being able to customize permissions for the staff increases accountability of the employees.

Incentivized