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
ChiroTouch
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
ChiroTouch is cloud chiropractic software offering an integrated EHR software built for chiropractors, top to bottom. ChiroTouch is an integrated system for payment processing and insurance claims management.
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.
ChiroTouch has helped us maintain more accurate records, notes, billing, and the text reminders help to ensure the patients remember their appointment which keeps our numbers good.
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.
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
There is quite a bit to learn, even if you have experience with other EHR systems like I did, and required our staff and providers time and patience to get accustomed to it. It may be helpful for the Chirotouch team to develop a curriculum of sorts to navigate practices through learning the system in a logical way.
The EHR system is higher in price than other comparable systems, especially with all the add-ons - it would be nice if Chirotouch were a little more transparent about what you get when purchasing the item off the shelf, and, more importantly, what features are not included without a package upgrade.
The graphic layout and color scheme isn't as "pretty" as other EHR systems I've worked with, and actually looks quite outdated. It might be worthwhile for Chirotouch to work with graphic designers to make the interface a little more aesthetically pleasing.
It is fine once it is up and running, but the customization takes a long time, does not have some things setup in advance that seem very straight forward, and for most people the learning curve is very high for learning the system even once it is properly setup and customized. However, it is "fine" not particularly impressive. Additionally, their customer support and training is substandard.
Sometimes we get weird error messages. We have been having a problem with our check-in computer and ChiroTouch hasn't been able to figure out the problem
Generally we never have problems with speed. If we have, it's been because we needed to perform software updates, and then it went back to working quickly.
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.
The particular person we were assigned was not very well versed in the software. Several things we asked about we were told we not possible, and then I later figure out how to do them by myself after getting to know the software. I guess that is what comes from trainers who use the system in theory but not in an actual office. They are basically reading off a script that guides you how to set things up, nothing more. If she didn't know the answer, she didn't research it, she just told us it wasn't possible. However, it was a multi-session training spread out over a couple weeks and they did walk you through all the basics. It does take a lot of customization, so this was appreciated. It would have been very intimidating to do without guided support sessions.
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 had been using medisoft before and it wasn't organized enough or clear enough for insurance billing, coding and doctors notes. Chirotouch solved all of these problems with the additional bonus of being customizable
It's reliable, though occasionally has connectivity issues. Their support says it's our computing issue, not the software, but we don't have similar problems with other software. Definitely needs to be backed up daily. We use ChiroTouch's backup and it works well
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.
