athenaCollector vs Cerner Practice Management

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Our analysts compared athenaCollector vs Cerner Practice Management based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Medical Practice Management Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

athenaCollector Software Tool
Cerner Practice Management Software Tool

Product Basics

athenaCollector, developed by athenahealth, Inc., is a comprehensive software solution designed for medical practice management. It is particularly well-suited for healthcare providers seeking to streamline their billing processes, enhance revenue cycle management, and improve overall practice efficiency. One of the key benefits of athenaCollector is its ability to reduce administrative burdens, allowing medical professionals to focus more on patient care rather than paperwork. The software is known for its robust features, including claim processing, appointment scheduling, and reporting analytics, which collectively contribute to its popularity among users. When compared to similar products in the market, athenaCollector stands out for its user-friendly interface and the high level of customer support provided by athenahealth. Pricing for athenaCollector typically varies based on the size of the practice and the specific services required, with payment options designed to accommodate different budgetary needs. This flexibility in pricing, coupled with its comprehensive suite of features, makes athenaCollector a competitive choice for medical practice management.

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Cerner Practice Management allows health care providers to save company money by reducing inventory holding costs spent on excess stocks. It offers physicians and administrators efficient management tools to eliminate miscommunication, information duplication and error-prone record keeping.

Its digital features, including documentation, scheduling and e-prescribing, automatically flag unreliable and faulty information, thereby saving physician time. In addition to providing sharable, precise and accurate medical records, the system equips practices with database backups in the event of misplacement, theft or natural disasters. 
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Product Insights

  • Get Paid More, Faster: AthenaCollector helps your organization get paid more quickly by scrubbing claims of any errors before submission. Denied claims can be resubmitted automatically to save time and prevent missing out on reimbursements. 
  • Improve Collections With Less Work: AthenaCollector helps to ensure the full amount of money owed is paid in a timely manner, boasting a 95% first-pass acceptance rate for insurance claims. By automating the billing and payment processes, staff members are required to do less work overall. 
  • Optimize Staff Performance: With more time available to your physicians through the automation of tasks, your healthcare professionals can get back to focusing on what’s most important — the patient. Analytics help provide insights and recognize patterns, making accurate diagnosis and treatment more likely. 
  • Compare Your Performance With Your Peers: By connecting with other AthenaHealth providers, you can compare the performance of your facility with others using the network. This can help lead to greater treatment results. Data analytics are made transparent and much easier to understand by displaying information in graphs, charts and more. 
  • Speed Up Patient Visits: Rather than having to check a patient’s insurance eligibility before each appointment, updates can be made online by the patient themselves. Additionally, a patient can walk out of the building once their appointment is finished with their payment taken out automatically. This gets rid of the time spent settling up once an appointment is finished. Athena’s advanced scheduling tool also helps to keep patient wait times down. 
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  • Streamlined Billing: Cerner Practice Management simplifies the billing process, reducing the time and effort required to manage invoices and payments, which can lead to improved cash flow for practices.
  • Enhanced Patient Experience: By automating appointment scheduling and reminders, the software ensures a smoother, more efficient patient journey from booking to visit, enhancing overall satisfaction.
  • Improved Accuracy: The system minimizes human error in coding and billing, ensuring that claims are accurate and reducing the likelihood of rejections or denials from insurance companies.
  • Comprehensive Reporting: With advanced reporting capabilities, practices can easily generate detailed financial and clinical reports, aiding in better decision-making and strategic planning.
  • Increased Productivity: Automating routine tasks such as appointment scheduling, patient registration, and billing frees up staff to focus on more critical aspects of patient care and practice management.
  • Regulatory Compliance: Cerner Practice Management helps practices stay compliant with changing healthcare regulations, including HIPAA and MACRA, reducing the risk of penalties and ensuring patient data is protected.
  • Scalability: The software is designed to grow with your practice, easily accommodating new providers, services, and locations without significant disruptions to operations.
  • Integrated EHR Compatibility: Seamlessly integrating with electronic health records (EHR) systems, Cerner Practice Management ensures that patient information is up-to-date and accessible across all points of care.
  • Reduced No-Shows: Automated appointment reminders significantly reduce the number of no-shows, ensuring better utilization of resources and potentially increasing revenue.
  • Enhanced Data Security: With robust security measures in place, the software ensures that sensitive patient data is securely stored and managed, protecting against breaches and unauthorized access.
  • Customizable Features: Cerner Practice Management offers customizable features that can be tailored to meet the unique needs of each practice, ensuring a perfect fit for various specialties and practice sizes.
  • Mobile Access: Providers and staff can access patient information and practice management tools on-the-go through mobile apps, enhancing flexibility and responsiveness.
  • Improved Patient Flow: By efficiently managing appointments and patient registrations, the software helps in optimizing patient flow, reducing wait times, and improving the overall efficiency of the practice.
  • Financial Management: The platform offers tools for detailed financial analysis and management, helping practices monitor their financial health and make informed decisions regarding expenses and investments.
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  • Performance Reporting: AthenaCollector allows your health professionals to view detailed, real-time reports with the click of a button. Benchmarks are established based on comparisons with other AthenaHealth customers to help drive better results. 
  • Revenue Cycle Dashboard: Physicians can easily access revenue cycle tasks as well as patient information from a singular, centralized dashboard. The intuitive dashboard lets users quickly bounce around from one task to another without getting lost. 
  • Appointment Scheduling: This allows your organization to optimize the number of appointments, increasing daily traffic. The online scheduling tool helps to eliminate double-scheduling or scheduling conflicts while connecting your physicians with patients. Automatic reminders are also sent out to help prevent no-shows. 
  • Claims Management: AthenaCollector is able to automatically verify a patient’s insurance eligibility prior to their appointment. Its automatically updated rules engine helps catch errors within claims before submitting them, leading to fewer denials and higher first-time acceptance rates. 
  • Patient Check-In: Patients are able to check themselves in online before showing up for their appointments. Any necessary information can be updated prior to the time of an appointment, saving themselves the time spent filling out charts, providing insurance and more. 
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  • Documentation: Reduce transcription costs and eliminate malpractice risks by enhancing documentation and storage methods. Facilitate easier record management abilities by cutting down paper-based resource usage. Provide staff and physicians with digital documentation options for better care quality and simplified administrative operations. 
  • Scheduling: Fill appointment gaps using automated scheduling modules. Gain instant visibility into canceled appointments to efficiently backfill free slots. Enable patients to book, reschedule and cancel from anywhere across the globe. 
  • Patient Portal: Facilitate virtual care coordination using an online portal for easy communication among patients, physicians and front office staff. Store everything from patient data, medical histories, e-prescriptions, treatment progress to lab results in a unified space. 
  • Claims Management: Check, track and resubmit rejected claims using an electronic claims management system. Achieve fewer denials and cleaner claims by efficiently managing the whole process through automated tools. Identify recurring claim errors and fix them without requiring a large number of changes. 
  • E-Prescribing: Gain complete insight into a patient’s medical history with a click of a button. Set system alerts to inform providers and prescribers about potential drug interactions, allergies and other contraindications for better care delivery. 
  • Medical Billing: Enable an effortless way to bill by using electronic invoicing tools for uniform data entry capabilities. Eliminate staff fatigue by cutting down repetitive manual entries. Run automated processes to detect errors, including coding inconsistencies, missing documentation and outdated patient information backup. 
    • Dunning Management: Streamline billing procedures by optimizing time and costs of daily workflows. Reduce payment declines and recurring revenue loss by providing a digital mechanism for swift notification of unsuccessful payment attempts via emails and in-app text messages. 
  • Inventory Management: Improve order and sales accuracy to save money on inventory damage control. Use the inventory management feature to identify appropriate quantities of each product and automate error-free renewals and shipment processes. 
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Product Ranking

#115

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Medical Practice Management Software

#27

among all
Medical Practice Management Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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Billing And Claims Management Clinical Management Collaboration Dashboard And Reporting Medical Coding Mobile Capabilities Patient Payments Management Patient Schedule Management 82 91 69 82 100 47 70 75 0 25 50 75 100
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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User Sentiment Summary

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Good User Sentiment 252 reviews
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71%
of users recommend this product

Cerner Practice Management has a 'good' User Satisfaction Rating of 71% when considering 252 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

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4.1 (16)
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Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Streamlined Claim Scrubbing: Users appreciate the ability to submit cleaner claims, reducing denials and rework, which in turn improves revenue cycle efficiency.
Integrated Patient Engagement Tools: Features like appointment reminders and patient portals enhance patient communication and satisfaction, leading to better patient retention and loyalty.
Comprehensive Reporting: Robust reporting capabilities provide insights into practice performance, allowing for data-driven decision-making and practice optimization.
Cloud-Based Accessibility: The cloud-based nature of athenaCollector enables access from anywhere with an internet connection, offering flexibility and convenience for healthcare providers.
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Appointment Scheduling: Scheduling appointments is a breeze with Cerner's user-friendly interface. The system is designed to streamline the process, making it easy for staff to manage appointments efficiently.
Billing and Claims: Cerner simplifies the billing process by automating tasks and reducing errors. This leads to faster reimbursement and improved revenue cycle management for practices.
Reporting and Analytics: Gain valuable insights into your practice's performance with Cerner's comprehensive reporting tools. Track key metrics, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions to optimize operations.
Patient Engagement: Enhance patient engagement and satisfaction with Cerner's patient portal. Patients can easily access their medical records, schedule appointments, and communicate with their providers online.
Integration and Interoperability: Cerner's commitment to interoperability ensures seamless data exchange with other healthcare systems. This promotes care coordination and improves patient outcomes.
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Customer Support: Users have reported challenges in reaching customer support promptly and receiving timely resolutions to their inquiries.
Software Issues: Some users have encountered technical problems and glitches within the software, leading to disruptions in workflow and potential data inaccuracies.
System Updates: The frequency of system updates has been a concern for some users, as they can sometimes lead to temporary disruptions or require additional training to adapt to new features or changes in functionality.
Cost: The pricing structure and associated costs of athenaCollector have been mentioned as a drawback by some users, particularly for smaller practices or those with budget constraints.
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Steep Learning Curve: The system's complexity can be overwhelming for new users, requiring extensive training and ongoing support to achieve proficiency.
Customization Challenges: Tailoring the software to specific workflows and preferences can be difficult, often necessitating costly and time-consuming custom development.
Reporting Limitations: Generating custom reports or extracting specific data points can be cumbersome, hindering data analysis and decision-making.
Integration Issues: Seamless integration with other healthcare systems or third-party applications can be problematic, leading to data silos and workflow disruptions.
User Interface Concerns: The user interface is often described as outdated and clunky, impacting user experience and productivity.
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Stepping into the bustling world of medical practice management software, athenaCollector emerges as a prominent contender, but how does it truly fare in the eyes of its users? Let's delve into the experiences shared by those who have navigated the intricacies of this platform. athenaCollector garners praise for its comprehensive suite of features, encompassing electronic health records (EHRs), patient scheduling, billing, and insurance claims processing. Users appreciate the platform's ability to streamline administrative tasks, allowing healthcare providers to dedicate more time to patient care. The user-friendly interface and customization options further contribute to its appeal. However, a recurring concern among users is the cost associated with athenaCollector. Some find the pricing structure to be relatively high compared to alternative solutions. Additionally, while the platform offers customer support, there have been instances where users have expressed dissatisfaction with the responsiveness or effectiveness of the assistance provided. When compared to competitors like SimplePractice, Waystar, and Kareo, athenaCollector distinguishes itself through its robust feature set and integration capabilities. Its ability to handle complex billing processes and manage large volumes of patient data makes it particularly well-suited for larger medical practices or those with specialized needs. Smaller practices or solo practitioners may find more cost-effective options with comparable features among the alternatives available. Ultimately, the suitability of athenaCollector hinges on the specific requirements and priorities of each medical practice. For those seeking a comprehensive and integrated solution with a wide range of features, athenaCollector proves to be a valuable asset, despite its higher price point. However, smaller practices or those with budget constraints may find better value in alternative platforms that offer a more streamlined and affordable approach.

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Cerner Practice Management, a comprehensive software solution designed to streamline administrative tasks in healthcare settings, has elicited a range of user feedback. While some users appreciate the software's user-friendly interface and extensive features, others express concerns about its cost and potential rigidity. Let's delve into the specifics of these perspectives. Users frequently commend Cerner Practice Management for its intuitive design and ease of use. The software's interface is lauded for its straightforwardness, enabling healthcare professionals to navigate the system efficiently. Additionally, the software's customizability empowers practices to tailor the system to their specific workflows and requirements. This adaptability is particularly beneficial for practices with unique operational needs. However, the software's cost can be a significant barrier for smaller practices or those with limited budgets. The price tag associated with Cerner Practice Management may necessitate careful consideration and financial planning. Cerner Practice Management distinguishes itself through its robust integration capabilities. The software seamlessly integrates with Cerner's electronic health record (EHR) system, facilitating a smooth exchange of patient data and streamlining clinical workflows. This integration is especially advantageous for healthcare organizations already utilizing Cerner's EHR solutions. Furthermore, Cerner Practice Management offers both cloud-based and on-premise deployment options, providing flexibility to accommodate diverse technological preferences and infrastructure limitations. Considering these factors, Cerner Practice Management is well-suited for medium to large healthcare practices seeking a comprehensive, integrated solution to optimize their administrative processes and enhance operational efficiency. Smaller practices may find alternative solutions better aligned with their budgetary constraints.

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