athenaClinicals vs. DrChrono

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
athenaClinicals
Score 9.6 out of 10
N/A
N/AN/A
DrChrono
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
DrChrono in Sunnyvale offers what they describe as a complete EHR, Practice Management, and Revenue Cycle Management Solution - Available on iPad, iPhone, and Web. DrChrono offers solutions for speciality practices as well.
$199
per month
Pricing
athenaClinicalsDrChrono
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Starting Price
$199.00
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
athenaClinicalsDrChrono
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
athenaClinicalsDrChrono
Considered Both Products
athenaClinicals
Chose athenaClinicals
Not listed- though Athena is much preferred compared to past systems used.
Chose athenaClinicals
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.
Chose athenaClinicals
Greenway was absolutely horrible. Not intuitive, no right-click functionality, poor integration, and flexibility. athenaClinicals surpasses it in every aspect.
Chose athenaClinicals
They have the same very similar capabilities. They have a quality measures icon and a great dashboard to help close gaps in care. Centricity does not have those features in this current version.
Chose athenaClinicals

I was not the one that selected the program but we all voted as a group and the CEO made the decision. We actually voted to do more research because of the expense of the program.

It is easy to use and to learn with many available templates. We are in psychiatry and there were …

Chose athenaClinicals
eCW allows for customization on the provider level whereas athenaClinicals requires standardization by specialty. Meaningful Use and other quality programs are more challenging on eCW. eCW templates are quite different looking from those that are in athenaClinicals and the flow …
Chose athenaClinicals
Again, I would recommend Athena second on this list...and it's all practice specific. If a practice can afford Athena, then it's an ok system...but do not expect an intuitive system such as Cerner that can be fully customized and follows a physician workflow better.
Chose athenaClinicals
athenahealth is more user friendly. There customer service center does not leave you without an answer. The reports can be built to each managers specific needs and the gathering of data from the EMR is fast. WOW!
DrChrono
Chose DrChrono
TheraOffice has the best tech support and onboarding training. WebPT is also good, but their charting templates lack customization. RehabOptima and Casamba are straight forward and reliable. I am currently stuck with DrChrono.
Features
athenaClinicalsDrChrono
Billing and Claims Management
Comparison of Billing and Claims Management features of Product A and Product B
athenaClinicals
8.4
Ratings
11% above category average
DrChrono
-
Ratings
Real-time eligibility verification9.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Claims management8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Coding9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Patient billing8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Financial Reporting7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Patient Scheduling
Comparison of Patient Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
athenaClinicals
8.2
Ratings
4% above category average
DrChrono
-
Ratings
Rule-based scheduling7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated appointment reminders8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated patient check-in8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-location support8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Calendar interface8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Electronic Medical Records
Comparison of Electronic Medical Records features of Product A and Product B
athenaClinicals
8.9
Ratings
20% above category average
DrChrono
-
Ratings
Charting / document management8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Templates8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Patient portal10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile/tablet support8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Fax integration9.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with other EMR and PM systems7.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow automation8.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Speech recognition9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Customization7.20 Ratings00 Ratings
E-prescribing9.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Medical Security and Privacy
Comparison of Medical Security and Privacy features of Product A and Product B
athenaClinicals
8.4
Ratings
1% above category average
DrChrono
-
Ratings
HIPAA compliance8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based permission levels9.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Data backups and redundancy8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Local mode / networking failsafe7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow and Scale
Comparison of Workflow and Scale features of Product A and Product B
athenaClinicals
8.8
Ratings
15% above category average
DrChrono
-
Ratings
Task tracking8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Specialty-specific workflows8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-office / multi-physician capabilities9.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
athenaClinicalsDrChrono
Small Businesses
RXNT
RXNT
Score 8.0 out of 10
Tebra Billing & Payments
Tebra Billing & Payments
Score 7.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
CareLogic EHR
CareLogic EHR
Score 10.0 out of 10
CareLogic EHR
CareLogic EHR
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Epic
Epic
Score 9.5 out of 10
Epic
Epic
Score 9.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
athenaClinicalsDrChrono
Likelihood to Recommend
6.8
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.2
(0 ratings)
5.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
2.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
3.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
athenaClinicalsDrChrono
Likelihood to Recommend
athenaClinicals is well suited from a single physician office to an enterprise healthcare system. The only specialty that they cannot cover is oncology that includes chemotherapy infusions (the dosing is very complicated and requires a specific oncology system).
Read full review
Templates are customizable and you can take pictures directly into a patient's chart. DrChrono is less appropriate for this reason: they have been working on enrolling my company for Medicare electronic billing for [seven months]. [As a result], I have been unable to bill for any Medicare patients for [seven months]. The only person I have talked to was in India [and] ([the] email address ended in .india). I have had to call Medicare to try to figure out how to complete the enrollment process, [and I ended up with this response from Medicare: "DrChrono needs to [stop being lazy and do something]!." I lost [a] significant [amount of] money. [...]
Read full review
Pros
  • Athena is able to create a medication list from the patient's pharmacy purchase history. This aides in compiling a comprehensive list quickly, especially when the patients do not know what meds they are on. The downside to this module is that every time that you add a medication that is not on the list, it turns it into an order that the provider needs to sign. There are many times that you need to make an addition, that the provider does not want to sign as an order.
  • The patient history module is easy to configure to meet the needs of the organization.
Read full review
  • Documentation Template Customization
Read full review
Cons
  • The cost is very high compared to other programs.
  • Some people find the program difficult to learn.
  • The billing software requires more work than is described when they are trying to sell you the program.
  • The sales staff that we dealt with had the vibe of car salesmen. At times very pushy and the room for negotiation grew at each interaction. The high cost first quoted is very negotiable but they "up charge" for many things.
Read full review
  • [Onboarding] trainers and tech support do not know the program.
  • [All] DrChrono calls are from blocked, [unknown], or their personal numbers. [Looking] at [each] caller ID, you have to answer every call because they do not register as DrChrono.
  • DrChrono [uses] [Google] phone and [I could] not understand what [a] trainer [said] [when I called them]. [I could not hear what the trainer said] over the noise of other conversations on [Google] phone.
  • [I] [had] absolutely no way of talking to tech support in person.
  • [Tech] support tickets [are] unanswered.
  • [They] do not know how to enroll providers to bill Medicare electronically.
  • [There was] absolutely no accountability.
  • [The] platform was constantly down [and was very frustrating].
  • [There was a] consistently, delayed submission.
  • [Every] day, [I got] an email about a problem that they are working on.
  • [Weekly] issues for platform [was] addressed for slowness.
  • Tech support needs [to have professional people answering tech problems, needs to be reliable, and be responsive whenever someone has issues].
  • [The] tutorial videos [for DrChrono] are from several years [ago] and no longer apply to the [most] current platform layout.
  • [The] help browser [is] nonfunctional.
  • [Tech support is not well trained. You can not talk to anyone in person and they often do not answer tech tickets. Onboard trainers do not know their system. Customer often figures out the answers before the training rep. Between the accent and the noise of Google phone, my entire training session was asking her to repeat what she said. When they are rated lowest of the group for tech support, it is for a reason].
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
DrChrono has resulted in revenue loss
Read full review
Usability
Overall the system is good. Actually, this was supposed to be the universal EMR when it came out during the Bush administration.
Read full review
If you don't want to do anything custom, the platform is pretty easy to navigate.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
I am glad I am not always affected by the platform problems. You get daily emails notifying you they are working on slowness, ERA submission problems etc
Read full review
Performance
No answers on this topic
For the most part, the program slowness has not affected me directly.
Read full review
Support Rating
They are always there. Friendly and organized.
Read full review
Their tech support is not well trained. You can not talk to tech support directly. You have to submit work tickets, which have gone unanswered
Read full review
Online Training
No answers on this topic
When being trained on the billing program, rather than start at the beginning and "TRAIN HOW TO USE THE PROGRAM" the trainer kept asking me what questions I had. I kept saying I don't know what I don't know. Her response was, ok, were done then. You don't have anymore questions. The only thing I could think to do was ask her to explain each item in each drop down box, but she would just read out loud the drop down choices and ask what questions I had. This pretty much sums up their training.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
If you have used other EHR and programs, over time you will be able to self train for DrChrono
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Greenway was absolutely horrible. Not intuitive, no right-click functionality, poor integration, and flexibility. athenaClinicals surpasses it in every aspect.
WoundExpert was well suited to wound healing and hyperbaric medical practices. If athenaClinicals had the right forms and ability to accommodate wound care and HBO workflows, it would be a good competitor.
Read full review
TheraOffice has the best tech support and onboarding training. WebPT is also good, but their charting templates lack customization. RehabOptima and Casamba are straight forward and reliable. I am currently stuck with DrChrono.
Read full review
Scalability
No answers on this topic
The platform is often being worked on for slowness.
Read full review
Return on Investment
No answers on this topic
  • Negative: I have lost reimbursement due to the time for tech support to address ticket and the max claims submission time.
  • Negative: I have [not had any medicare revenue for seven months] due to DrChrono not knowing how to enroll for Medicare Electronic Billing. This issue still has not been resolved.
  • Negative: Lost time due to the platform being down or running slow.
  • Negative: Slow claims processing.
  • Negative: DrChrono needs [qualified] tech support, [quality] [for] onboard training, [timely] response to technical issues, [and timely] response to billing issues.
Read full review
ScreenShots