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Should I use Athenahealth?

Cloud EHR and practice management: clinical records, revenue-cycle billing, patient communication. - athenahealth.com

Depends. athenahealth fits mid-size and large medical groups that want EHR, billing, and patient communication in one cloud platform and can handle opaque, sales-quoted pricing. Solo clinicians, small practices on a budget, and any non-healthcare buyer should look at simpler, cheaper EHRs instead.

Confidence

Medium. Based on 25+ public sources; many snippets truncated, so ratings and pricing details are partial.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support qualityNo direct support evidence found
  • Security posture

Pricing

Not published

Custom quote

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierNo

Best for

  • Mid-size and large medical groups
  • Practices wanting billing/RCM handled for them
  • Multi-specialty clinics
  • Behavioral health groups

Not for

  • Solo clinicians wanting a cheap, simple EHR
  • Any non-healthcare business
  • Teams needing transparent, published pricing
  • Anyone wanting self-hosted, in-house data control

Gotchas - check before you buy

high

2024 breach may trigger patient-notification and monitoring duties for affected practices.

medium

Pricing is unpublished and varies by practice size and billing volume; expect sales negotiation.

medium

Guess: switching EHRs later means painful data migration and retraining; multi-year lock-in.

medium

Reliability complaints on Reddit: users report being locked out of the system.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Full cloud suite: EHR, revenue-cycle billing, patient communication
  • HITRUST-certified with a formal security program
  • Third-party review confirms HIPAA compliance measures
  • Long track record, operating since 1997
  • Widely adopted: roughly 1,499 US companies use it

Cons

  • Poor 1.4/5 Trustpilot rating
  • November 2024 data breach exposed sensitive patient data
  • No public pricing; everything is sales-quoted
  • Reddit users report access outages and downtime
  • Harsh Reddit criticism from IT admins running it

Sources & method

Analyzed 10/01/2026 - 14 sources - HITRUST-certified and HIPAA-compliant, but a November 2024 breach exposed patient data.

official x3review x7security x3news x1
  • November 2024 data breach, Breach exposed sensitive patient data; athenahealth notified the New Hampshire Attorney General.
  • CVE-2015-2898-2901, Securifera advisory listing four 2015 CVEs; sources give limited detail on affected components.

Key stats

  • Value for money: 2/5

    Rating

  • Not published

    Starting price

  • 14

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 2/5. Opaque pricing; 1.4/5 Trustpilot
  • Ease of use: 2/5. Reddit reports usability and access complaints
  • Feature depth: 4/5. Full EHR, billing, patient-communication suite
  • Support quality. No direct support evidence found
  • Security posture: 3/5. HITRUST certified, but 2024 breach reported
  • 1.4/5 Trustpilot rating athenahealth.com reviews
  • 1997 Founded Operating 25+ years
  • 134 G2 reviews Across athenahealth products
  • 2,917 Glassdoor reviews Employee reviews

Pricing

Custom quote

Not published

  • Sales-quoted per practice
  • Depends on practice size and services

Security

HITRUST-certified and HIPAA-compliant, but a November 2024 breach exposed patient data.

  • November 2024 data breachBreach exposed sensitive patient data; athenahealth notified the New Hampshire Attorney General.⁸
  • CVE-2015-2898-2901Securifera advisory listing four 2015 CVEs; sources give limited detail on affected components.

What users say

reviews skew sharply negative, with a 1.4/5 Trustpilot score and Reddit complaints about usability and reliability.

“Athena medical is horrible. Are you guys using anything ...”
Reddit, r/msp
“Can't access athena!!!”
Reddit, r/healthIT

Companies that use it

  • Privia Health
  • Mindwell
Full analysis

Based on 25+ public sources; many snippets truncated, so ratings and pricing details are partial.

Enterprise cloud EHR with billing built in. Opaque pricing, 1.4/5 Trustpilot, one 2024 breach.

Methodology

Based on 25+ public sources; many snippets truncated, so ratings and pricing details are partial.

Sources

  1. Athena Healthcare, Inc. Reviews — Trustpilottrustpilot.com
    review
  2. Athena medical is horrible — Reddit r/mspreddit.com
    review
  3. Athena Trouble — Reddit r/healthITreddit.com
    review
  4. athenaOne Reviews — G2g2.com
    review
  5. Athenahealth Review — Forbes Advisorforbes.com
    review
  6. athenahealth Data Incident — HIPAA Journalhipaajournal.com
    security
  7. athenahealth Data Incident Exposes Sensitive Patient Data — ClaimDepotclaimdepot.com
    security
  8. athenahealth breach notification — NH Attorney Generalmm.nh.gov
    security
  9. Certifications (HITRUST) — athenahealthathenahealth.com
    official
  10. EHR Software Pricing — athenahealthathenahealth.com
    official
  11. Who We Are — athenahealthathenahealth.com
    official
  12. How Much Does Athenahealth Cost Per Month — Emitrremitrr.com
    review
  13. 6 Best athenahealth Alternatives — RXNTrxnt.com
    review
  14. Companies that use AthenaHealth in United States — TheirStacktheirstack.com
    news

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