Whatever your practice’s needs are, you must have an EHR platform that can meet them. Comparing the features of different EHR platforms is a great way to ensure that your practice has the right software for today and the future.
In this article, we will be stacking up against the two of the most robust healthcare software choices on the market today: AthenaHealth vs. NextGen Healthcare.
What is Athenahealth?
Athenahealth EMR is a leading provider of cloud-based and on-premise healthcare solutions nationwide for medical groups and health systems. The platform believes in creating an ecosystem that provides high-quality, accessible, and sustainable healthcare facilities.
Athenahealth incorporates engagement tools such as telehealth services, patient portals, and online scheduling to improve patient satisfaction. This can be done through the use of secure data sharing features or by taking advantage of secure messaging options which allow users to communicate with each other easily.
What is the NextGen Office?
NextGen Healthcare is the main healthcare software and administration organization that engages the change of ambulatory consideration. We partner with providers to create high-performance clinical systems that enable them to deliver world-class patient experiences and drive value over time.
NextGen EMR Office is a completely incorporated Practice Management arrangement that incorporates specialty-explicit substances, a cases clearinghouse, and a simple to-utilize patient Portal.
The System offers MIPS reporting/dashboards, automates insurance eligibility verification and prior authorization at both claim submission and electronic billing submission points in the process; empowers patients to schedule appointments, request refills by phone or email; schedule telehealth visits; connects the care team through direct messaging on the portal; integration for shared notes between doctors’ offices – all within one System!
Key Differentiators & Advantages of Athenahealth
- Cloud-based deployment means that you can keep your staff and physicians up-to-date on industry and regulatory changes in real-time.
- Telehealth is the future of healthcare. Using innovative online tools and a growing network of medical professionals, offering patients remote access to care.
- The platform makes it easy for patients to communicate with physicians and get their questions answered, as well as view lab results, request prescription refills, and more., and use mobile devices.
Key Differentiators & Advantages of NextGen Office
- NextGen Office’s intuitive, easy-to-use charting features allow you to spend less time dealing with documentation and avoid the hassles of physical files.
- Store patient data in one centralized location for patient care coordination across departments and facilities.
- Easily access up-to-date patient information anytime via mobile devices or at workstations within your practice building or hospital campus.
Nextgen Features
NextGen Software features include:
- Appointment Management
- Appointment Scheduling
- Billing & Invoicing
- Charting (including Coding and Charge Entry)
- Claims Scrubbing
Nextgen Limitations
The system can sometimes be slow, crash and freeze. Credit card processing is also challenging to set up, so you must rely on generic support answers that require escalation.
Athenahealth Features
- Appointment Management
- Billing Management
- Clinical Workflow
- Document Management
- Lab Integration
- Medical Templates
- Patient History
- Patient Portal
- Referrals
- Reporting and Analytics
Athenahealth Limitations
Patients are unable to send or receive messages without unread notifications.
In-house claims management required on top of services: While we are able to handle all aspects of the patient’s care, it is essential that we be able to provide them with the ability to manage their claims simply and efficiently.
Indirect and evasive support responses: Sometimes, our support team does not respond directly to questions from patients but instead refers them to other people within the organization who may be able to answer their questions better than we can.
NextGen Office Pricing
NextGen Office has not yet released detailed pricing information. However, it does offer a free trial of its platform.
A trial is helpful if you want to see the platform’s features before deciding whether it’s worth paying for, primarily since NextGen Healthcare hasn’t provided any pricing details yet.
As we mentioned above, AthenaHealth does have a few different packages that include different amounts of storage and support depending on your needs—but once again, this could be hard to compare against other vendors because there are no direct competitors at this time.
Athenahealth Pricing
Athenahealth offers a range of pricing plans to suit the needs of your practice. Their pricing is typically based on cost per physician per month, billed annually, and you can additionally have administrative accounts.
According to Athenahealth, they promise you won’t have to pay any hidden fees when using their software.
Athenahealth reviews
PROS
Customer Support: Users who struggled with implementation received adequate support, and all users have access to effective support at all times, as noted by almost 90% of reviews.
CONS
- Using this System for quite a while, and I can’t say anything negative about it.
- The only thing that’s ever happened to me while using [product name] is that I got very good at it.
NextGen Office Reviews
PROS
- Its simplicity of use and capacity to change the day-to-day schedules and invoicing and medical records administration is incredible.
- It allows you to import your patient’s data from other systems, so you won’t have any issues with getting things done smoothly.
CONS
- Tabs, scrolling, and button clicking in excess may seem nitpicking. Still, they were annoying at times because they slowed me down and weren’t necessary most of the time since I could accomplish my task without them anyway.
- Overall, this isn’t too bad considering all the pros of using this System, such as saving money in paperwork costs alone (no more faxing!).
Conclusion
In the end, there’s no way to say that one is necessarily better than the other—both AthenaHealth and NextGen Software have their benefits and drawbacks. Fundamentally, their strengths and weaknesses stem from different areas of their service offerings. Overall, AthenaHealth tends to sell more value-added content than NextGen Software, while NextGen Software caters more to the front-end management of your business than AthenaHealth does. Ultimately, your choice will likely depend on what you’re looking for in a software solution.