athenaIDX is an on-premise or cloud-hosted enterprise RCM solution that helps health systems, hospitals, billing services, and large practices optimize financial performance and successfully adapt to healthcare payment reform. It is based on the Centricity medical practice and EMR software that was formerly owned and supported by GE Healthcare acquired by Veritas Capital in 2018, spun off into a new entity (Virence Health), and then rebranded as a product of athenahealth (also a Veritas…
N/A
TotalMD
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
Pricing that makes sense: Pay per user, not per provider. Fewer clicks: Fewer clicks to drive efficiency. Personalized service: U.S.-based, personalized support and training. Get paid faster:Revenue cycle management boasting 97.48% first pass acceptance rates. Any size business: For established billing companies, startups or an independent contractors.
I couldn't recommend IDX to anyone. Most of the reviews on this site appear to be for the program that broke off from Athena IDX, Centricity Practice Solutions (CPS). CPS is a much more capable program managed by Unlimited Systems (a separate company) that should NOT be confused with Athena IDX (managed by Athena Health). It's possible that Athena IDX was usable in the 90s compared to other peer programs at that time, but there are so, so many better, modern solutions available now for far less money. This software is priced at the enterprise level with a level of quality that is below budget tier with an ancient feature set to boot.
To date, TotalMD EHR is being used in many specialties, including chiropractic, general surgery, home healthcare, mental health, internal medicine, family practice, plastic surgery, OB/GYN and alternative medicine. Because the system is available as both server-based (in-house system) or cloud-based, each practice may choose which option may better suit the way they care for patients, based on portability needs.
One of the best things about Centricity is it is flexible. We are able to add a data point behind a term (CPS calls this an observation term) and track any data needed. These observation terms also allow us to pull information forward and display information needed to make a good decision or used to decrease errors. For example in our history forms given to the patients one of the questions is side of injury. This affected side displays on our EMR forms which helps providers and prevents mistakes.
CPS integrates with other programs. We are paperless and use DocuSign to send each patient their history, ROS and all new paperwork. This allows us to import the history into the forms and has saved us from adding extra staff (FTEs) to room and take history. The history form can be completed at home or in the waiting room. Each section has a observation term behind it and allows it to be placed into the note at the correct section. Since we have a fully integrated product we do not have to have another program to enter or transfer our charges from the EMR to the PM side of the program.
Our notes look great! We did a lot of customization which gave us the detail and look we wanted. It seems like a lot of work at first, but the outcome has so much efficacy. We increased our providers without having to increase our staffing and it is due to he efficiencies we gained by using the EMR.
One other note, Centricity is flexible but that means it is complicated. You can not have flexibility without it be complicated don't let that stop you the end results can be great.
Since TotalMD EHR is a completely integrated system with its TotalMD Practice Management and Patient Billing counterpart, the chance of data entry error across systems is minimized. Provider assessments translate directly to billing data, thus decreasing claim rejections, dramatically.
Templates are quickly and easily customized by the provider, for any and all specialties, based on the way the provider works as opposed to the way programmers decide.
Powerful tracking system allows providers to follow lab orders, medications, referral information and more, which enhances the ability to provide better care.
Statements print only current open accounts, would be nice to print a total statement for patients so they can see if payments are split between open and closed/zeroed out accounts
Although third-party applications are available for smartphone access to certain information, we are hoping to see such applications developed directly by TotalMD, to continue with their all-in-one approach, which minimizes any chance of data error.
Third-party biometric devices (fingerprint, retinal scan, etc.) can be utilized with the HL7 import capabilities of TotalMD. However, we would like to see such scanning devices created specifically for TotalMD. By doing so, the installation, configuration and support would be handled by one company, rather than a third party.
Training consists of overly specific points with no general process considerations. Trainers will regularly go 'into the weeds' on pointless edge cases while the meat of the training still needs to be addressed.
Athena IDX is more reliable than other platforms. It rarely has latency challenges where it has to be intermittently shut down or updated. It is accessible on multiple devices and overall, easy to use and navigate.
[We assessed] bringing on another product to our lineup (previously we were top national resellers of Medisoft and AltaPoint). However, TotalMD quickly became our flagship product, as it has proven to have the lowest maintenance/support requirements, the easiest to learn for both practitioners as well as support personnel and is the most affordable (most bang-for-the-buck) for our clients. Supporting over a thousand clients throughout the US, Canada, Guam and Puerto Rico for the past 23 years, we always hold our clients' best interests in mind.
Extremely expensive software for the limited feature set. We're talking millions of dollars with off hours support (anything outside of 8-6EST) that starts at $1200 for the first hour and $300 for each hour afterwards.
Multitasking isn't a thing unless you assign more licenses (thereby increasing your costs). Users can quite literally only have one IDX window open at a time unless you assign more licenses. This slows down everyone as there are plenty of times where examining different parts of a patient's profile is useful.
Reporting has been nearly impossible as we use modern reporting software. IDX's analytics site is firmly stuck in the 1990s and lacks decades of innovation present in something like Power BI.
Nickel and diming philosophy. A limited API server costs ~$10k/month. Setting up a new facility in IDX costs you and requires a 4 month lead time. Many more instances of this.
Since TotalMD is one of the few EHR systems on the market today, that does not have a required annual (and usually very pricey) support agreement, its fast user implementation time requirement and the many error cross-checking systems, the ROI for most practices, can be seen in a few months.
Data conversion from several software systems (Medisoft, AltaPoint, Lytec and Visionary) are typically included at no cost, saving many practices thousands of dollars when they switch from a lesser product. The technical team at TotalMD can convert data from most any other product at very reasonable rates.
