AdvancedMD to athenahealth Migration Guide
A complete step-by-step guide for migrating your EMR system from AdvancedMD to athenahealth. Includes data migration checklist, timeline estimates, cost projections, common challenges, and expert tips.
How do I migrate from AdvancedMD to athenahealth?
Migrating from AdvancedMD to athenahealth is a medium-difficulty process that typically takes 3-5 months and costs $10,000-$50,000 depending on practice size. Key steps include: evaluate financial and clinical impact, sign with athenahealth and begin onboarding, export data from advancedmd, and more. The migration involves transferring 10 categories of clinical and administrative data.
Timeline
Estimated Cost
Migration Process
Difficulty Level
Estimated Cost
Includes licensing, data migration, implementation services, training, and contingency. Actual costs vary based on organization size, data complexity, and customization requirements.
Data Migration Checklist
The following data categories can be migrated from AdvancedMD to athenahealth:
Step-by-Step Migration Process
Evaluate Financial and Clinical Impact
Compare AdvancedMD total cost ($729/provider/month for full suite) with athena percentage-of-collections model. Evaluate whether athena clinical workflows meet your specialty-specific needs, especially for dermatology, orthopedics, or ophthalmology.
Sign with athenahealth and Begin Onboarding
Engage athenahealth sales and implementation team. Provide detailed practice information including specialty mix, payer contracts, and current workflow documentation from AdvancedMD.
Export Data from AdvancedMD
Request full data exports from AdvancedMD including CCDA clinical records, demographic CSV files, billing history, and document attachments. AdvancedMD cloud platform provides data portability tools.
Configure athenaOne
Build your athenaOne environment with practice-specific configurations, clinical templates, billing setups, and scheduling workflows. Work with athena implementation team to replicate your most critical AdvancedMD workflows.
Migrate Data and Validate
Import patient data into athenahealth and validate migrated records. Focus on demographic accuracy, insurance information, medication lists, and active problem lists. Spot-check 50-100 patient charts.
Train Staff and Go Live
Complete role-based training using athenahealth University. Emphasize differences in billing workflow since the pricing model is changing. Go live with support and maintain AdvancedMD read-only access for 60 days.
Common Challenges
AdvancedMD subscription pricing to athena percentage-of-collections requires financial modeling
AdvancedMD specialty-specific templates (dermatology, ophthalmology) may lose some depth in athena generalized approach
AdvancedPatient reputation management features do not exist in athena
AdvancedInsights analytics and reporting must be rebuilt in athena
Revenue cycle workflow differences between AdvancedBilling and athenaCollector
Both are cloud-based, but the user interface paradigms are quite different
Expert Migration Tips
Export all AdvancedInsights report configurations and financial reports before migration -- athena reporting works differently
If you heavily use AdvancedMD telemedicine, verify athena telehealth meets your needs before committing
For specialty practices, request an athena demo with specialty-specific workflows to verify coverage
athena managed billing may offset the loss of AdvancedBilling features -- evaluate the full RCM offering
Plan for a billing revenue dip in the first 30-45 days as the new system stabilizes
Frequently Asked Questions
Why switch from AdvancedMD to athenahealth?
Practices switch for athena superior revenue cycle management performance, network-based billing optimization, better interoperability, and scalability for growing practices. athena no-upfront-cost model is also attractive.
Which is better for specialty practices -- AdvancedMD or athena?
AdvancedMD has deeper specialty-specific features, especially for dermatology and ophthalmology. athenahealth is a stronger generalist platform with better revenue cycle tools. The best choice depends on how critical specialty-specific features are to your workflow.
How does pricing compare?
AdvancedMD charges $729/provider/month for the full suite. athena charges 4-8% of collections with no upfront costs. For a provider collecting $500K annually, athena costs roughly $20K-$40K vs AdvancedMD $8,748. athena can be more expensive for high-earners but includes managed billing.
Will we lose patient engagement features?
AdvancedMD AdvancedPatient includes reputation management and marketing tools that athena does not offer. However, athena patient engagement (athenaCommunicator) excels at appointment reminders, messaging, and portal engagement. Consider third-party reputation tools if needed.
Migration Summary
- From
- AdvancedMD
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Timeline
- 3-5 months
- Est. Cost
- $10,000-$50,000 depending on practice size
- Steps
- 6 steps
- Data Types
- 10 categories
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