Comments on: HIStalk Interviews Jonathan Bush, CEO, President and Chair of athenahealth

By: Fourth Hansen Brother

Fourth Hansen Brother — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 07:22:49 +0000

The fun part of the smaller companies poking at the bigger EMR folks is that they don’t know what the big EMR folks actually can do. Doctors looking at oreders to see what’s been done and what hasn’t been done? Epic customers who do CPOE have been able to look at that for years.

What is needed in the industry is autocoding. Paying coders huge amounts of money to stick a number on a procedure is just plain silly. Or, in a larger way, having to stick an obscure number on a procedure to get paid is silly. Maybe this could be one of the first health code reforms. Eliminate coding altogether.

By: NCHIT

NCHIT — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:58:36 +0000

i still do compete with them and athena no longer does posting in india, done at the mass and maine outfits, they have 30 or so athena employees in india doing working on various automation projects with payers, labs etc for athenanet and use perot for just calling payers for denial follow up and data entry for paper-based activities they cant yet automate. they talk about all of this on their earning calls. wish there was something to hide – there isnt.

By: I was a an RCM

I was a an RCM — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:32:21 +0000

In my last job I worked at an RCM and I followed athena closely.

They use Perot systems for their payment posting,
They have outsourced part of their developed of their engine to India.
Hell if I remember correctly they were somewhere around the cost of 2.50 per CPT entered/ or some hwhere in the neighborhood of 2-4% collections, depending on size and specialty. To do that they have to outsource, hell an FTE in india costs about 800-1000 per month, or about 6.25 all in. you cant find people qualified enough to do data entry at minimum wage today most of they time they cost 10-15 per hour.

From an business theory they have the right idea, one large oracle database. The add each new setup to the db. So when ever someone finds something knew to share on AR follow-up everyone gets benefit. However there is no way to transfer this model to the entire nation as we currently stand.

I respect the model and the approach, but Johnathan Bush is still arrogant salesman in my eyes. But to be a good salesman you have to be that.

By: mine101

mine101 — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:17:27 +0000

all HIT legislation covers both software and services – same as CCHIT
which means athena and their services are just fine.

They dont charge on a monthly subscription like traditional ASP software but as straight up % of collections.

great read!!!

By: Pass The Mustard

Pass The Mustard — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:13:08 +0000

I appreciate Mr. Bush’s perspective and like his straight forward approach. I think that there’s plenty of room for new EHR vendors to emerge and prosper by using similar models. Leaders like Mr. Bush annoy the heck out of leaders of more traditional vendor models as seen in some of the comments here. I’m sure that Athena’s PM product was far from finished when they first came on the seen too. I would place my bet on Athena ahead of betting on Sage, AllScripts, NextGen and ECW.