Athenahealth vs Epic: Which EHR Is Better for Your Practice?

Introduction

Selecting an EHR is never simple, particularly when you have to choose between two major providers like Athenahealth and Epic. Both platforms are strong, popular, and offer the potential to improve patient care, expedite processes, and make billing easier.

However, the reality is that they are designed for quite different kinds of healthcare institutions.

Using data from YouTube reviews, user comments, product demos, and frequent conversations from administrators and clinicians who use these systems on a daily basis, this guide explains the differences. You don’t need to be a technical expert to follow along because everything is written in simple terms.

Athenahealth vs Epic: Why This Comparison Matters

The foundation of contemporary healthcare is Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Patient check-ins, physician workflows, billing, scheduling, communication, and even patient satisfaction are all impacted. Clinics and hospitals want to make this decision correctly the first time because switching systems is costly and disruptive.

• Both Athenahealth and Epic provide all-in-one platforms, they are frequently compared.
• Both support U.S. medical practices.
• EHR, practice management, billing, and patient communication are all integrated.

However, their ideal user base, complexity, pricing, and philosophy differ significantly. This blog will give you a thorough understanding of each platform so you can determine which one is best for your company.

At a Glance: Who Each System Is Best For

It’s helpful to know who these platforms are intended for before delving into features.

Athenahealth is ideal for:

• Small to medium-sized healthcare facilities.
• Expanding clinics with several providers
• Methods requiring cloud-based convenience
• Teams seeking quick and easy onboarding
• Businesses that favor revenue sharing over significant upfront expenses

To put it briefly, Athenahealth was designed with efficiency and usability in mind.

Epic is ideal for:

• Large hospitals.
• Health systems with multiple specialties
• Businesses that require intricate customizations
• Organizations requiring sophisticated reporting and analytics
• Organizations with IT departments and large implementation budgets

To put it briefly, Epic is designed for enterprise-level care, depth, and scale.

Platform Overview: How Each System Works

What is Athenahealth?

Athenahealth is an EHR and medical practice management system that runs on the cloud. Practices don’t require servers, complicated installations, or a sizable IT staff because it’s web-based. Updates are released automatically, and everything is done online.

All sizes of practices use it, but ambulatory practices, outpatient settings, and clinics that wish to remain flexible are where it excels.

What makes Athenahealth different?

• Fully cloud-based (nothing to install)
• Easy, intuitive interface for clinicians
• Revenue-sharing pricing: they only earn when you earn
• Strong patient engagement features
• Built-in support with a dedicated advisor
• athenaOne mobile app for iPhones and tablets

This is a platform designed for speed, simplicity, and practice growth.

What is Epic?

Since 1979, large hospitals and health systems have been dominated by Epic, an enterprise-grade EHR system. It is renowned for its breadth, adaptability, and capacity to handle enormous amounts of patient data from various facilities.

Because of its enormous scale and strong functionality, Epic is used by many of the best health systems in the United States, including Kaiser Permanente, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, and others.

What makes Epic different?

• All modules run on a unified database
• Highly customizable for complex workflows
• Industry-leading interoperability
• Advanced scheduling and inpatient management tools
• Strong analytics and reporting
• MyChart — one of the best patient portals in the industry

This system is built for healthcare giants — but that also means a steep learning curve and high cost.

Feature Comparison: Athenahealth vs Epic

Below is a breakdown of the major feature categories and how each platform performs.

1. EHR & Clinical Workflows

Athenahealth

Athenahealth is commended for its clinical workflows that are simple to understand. Doctors don’t have to click through endless screens to navigate the patient encounter. Documentation is easily integrated into billing and follow-up tasks, and templates are easily customizable.

Clinicians especially like:

• Well-organized patient charts
• Simple note-taking
• Easy workflows for prescriptions
• Access to medical records through CommonWell and Carequality
• Quick navigation with fewer pointless steps

It doesn’t have an excessive number of features, which is advantageous.

Epic

The clinical tools offered by Epic are very powerful. The platform supports:

• Inpatient care
• Workflows for outpatients
• Documentation specific to a particular specialty
• Integrations in the lab
• Imaging
• Coordination of care in hospitals

But there is complexity associated with this depth. Many medical professionals claim that Epic necessitates:

• Comprehensive training
• Customization of workflow
• It’s time to comprehend its reasoning

However, once mastered, Epic is incredibly powerful, particularly for cross-departmental or cross-specialty teams.

2. Practice Management & Scheduling

Athenahealth

Athenahealth’s scheduling system is easy to use and straightforward. This helps front-desk teams handle daily patient flow effectively. Appointments can be created or changed quickly, and the layout is simple enough for new staff to learn in a short time. Automated reminders and real-time insurance eligibility checks are part of the scheduling workflow. These features help lower no-shows and lessen last-minute disruptions. Patients can also schedule their appointments through the portal. This cuts down on phone calls and helps fill open slots more quickly.

What’s best is by adding a tool like Emitrr to Athenahealth, you can even:

• Automatically fill empty slots in your schedule by identifying patients in AthenaHealth with similar visit type and fill empty slots for last minute cancellations with our fast fill lists
• Send last-minute notifications to fill empty slots
• Setting up appointment reminders based on events

Epic

Epic’s scheduling module, Cadence, is much more customizable and was designed to help hospitals and large health systems with complex scheduling needs. It enables organizations to establish specific rules for appointment types, provider availability, linked resources such as rooms or equipment, and workflows across multiple locations. This flexibility is a big benefit for large organizations, but it also means the system takes longer to learn and needs more training. However, once set up correctly, Cadence provides a well-coordinated scheduling environment that handles large volumes and multi-department care.

3. Revenue Cycle Management (Billing)

Athenahealth

Athena is very strong in RCM, which is a major selling point for the platform. Its performance-based model connects Athena to a practice’s financial success. They only succeed when the practice collects revenue.

Key advantages:

• Real-time insurance eligibility verification
• Claims automatically reviewed for errors
• 93% first-pass resolution rate (as claimed)
• Automated tracking of denied claims
• Revenue dashboards with real-time updates

Epic

Epic’s RCM tools are designed for large systems with complex financial structures. This setup works well for hospitals but is often too much for small or medium-sized practices. 

Key advantages:

• Customized billing rules
• Automated charge capture
• Multi-department billing workflows
• Advanced financial analytics

4. Patient Engagement

Athenahealth

Athena focuses heavily on digital patient experience. Patients can:

• Self-schedule appointments
• Access records digitally
• Receive automated reminders
• Make payments online
• Join telehealth sessions
• View test results easily

It’s built with modern patient expectations in mind. But many practices report that the communication tools feel restrictive. Mass outreach is difficult. Two-way texting is not always reliable. Staff often juggle multiple external tools to manage confirmations, rescheduling, or patient questions. 

Solution within Athenahealth: Platforms like Emitrr fill these gaps by adding fully HIPAA-compliant two-way texting, automated reminders, and conversational workflows directly on top of Athenahealth. Practices can handle confirmations, updates, and follow-ups in real time without switching systems. This gives patients a smoother and faster communication experience.

See how you can engage with patients directly within Athenahealth via Emitrr:

Epic

Epic’s MyChart is one of the most recognized patient portals available. Millions of patients use it across major health systems.

MyChart enables:

• Appointment scheduling
• Messaging doctors
• Viewing prescriptions
• Paying bills
• Requesting refills
• Checking lab results
• Managing care for family members

Epic is very detailed, but it is designed for large health systems. Epic emphasizes MyChart for patient engagement. This works well for bigger systems, but it can be too much or confusing for patients who just want quick communication. Providers often say that patients overlook MyChart notifications, have trouble with login requirements, or fail to check messages promptly. Smaller departments also find it hard to carry out quick outreach campaigns or bulk communication without assistance from IT, which slows down their engagement efforts.

5. Interoperability

Athenahealth

Athena integrates smoothly with:

• Labs
• Pharmacies
• Imaging centers
• Third-party apps
• National networks (Carequality, CommonWell)

Because it’s web-based, integrations tend to be faster.

Epic

Epic is the gold standard in interoperability. Its unified database allows seamless, real-time data exchange across:

• Hospitals
• Clinics
• Departments
• Labs
• Ancillary services

For large organizations running multiple facilities, this capability is unmatched.

6. Athenahealth Pricing Vs Epic Pricing

Athenahealth Pricing

Athena follows a performance-based model, which means:  

• No large upfront licensing fees.  
• They take a percentage of your revenue only when you get paid.  
• No hidden fees for maintenance or updates.  

This approach attracts small and medium-sized practices looking for predictable, shared-risk pricing.  

Epic Pricing

Epic pricing relies a lot on the size of the organization and usually includes:  

• Large upfront licensing fees  
• Implementation costs  
• Customization fees  
• Ongoing maintenance  
• IT infrastructure or cloud hosting 

For smaller clinics, Epic can be too expensive. For hospitals, it is seen as a long-term investment.  

7. Pros & Cons of Each System

Athenahealth Pros

• Easy to use, even for staff who are not tech-savvy.  
• It is cloud-based, so there is no IT burden.  
• It has strong billing and revenue management.  
• The patient engagement tools are great.  
• It is scalable for clinics with multiple physicians.  
• The mobile app (athenaOne) is very convenient.  
• You get a dedicated support advisor.  

Athenahealth Cons

• Customer service feedback is inconsistent.  
• The pricing can feel high for small clinics.  
• There are occasional system delays or interface glitches.

Epic Pros

• Extremely powerful and customizable.  
• Best interoperability in the industry.  
• Perfect for hospitals and health systems.  
• Strong analytics and reporting capabilities.  
• MyChart is a highly trusted patient portal.  
• Can handle complex inpatient and outpatient workflows.  

Epic Cons

• Expensive upfront and long implementation timelines.  
• Steep learning curve.  
• Requires training and often an in-house IT team.  
• Can feel overwhelming for smaller practices.  

8. Which One Should You Choose? (Use-Case Scenarios)

Below are simple, real-world examples to help guide your decision. 

Choose Athenahealth if…

• You run a small to mid-sized practice.  
• You operate in ambulatory or outpatient care.  
• You want something cloud-based and simple.  
• You don’t want to hire a large IT team.  
• You want built-in revenue cycle support.  
• You prefer performance-based pricing.  
• You want a system that can grow with you without becoming too complex.  

Athena is a better fit for clinics that want an easy-to-use system without high overhead.  

Choose Epic if…

• You are a large hospital or multi-specialty health system.  
• You need extensive customization.  
• You rely on detailed analytics for financial and clinical decisions.  
• You want interoperability across multiple facilities.  
• You can invest in training, IT, and implementation.  
• You need inpatient and outpatient coverage in one system.  

Epic is ideal for organizations that want a powerful, enterprise-grade EHR with features that extend across departments and facilities.  

How Athenahealth Users Can Close Workflow Gaps with Emitrr

Athenahealth is powerful for EHR, billing, and clinical workflows, but falls short when it comes to high-volume patient communication and automation. Practices that rely heavily on reminders, follow-ups, and real-time texting often feel these limitations quickly. Combining Athenahealth with Emitrr helps users bridge these gaps without disrupting their existing setup.

What Emitrr Adds on Top of Athenahealth

• High-volume 2-way texting that scales with patient load
• Automated reminders and follow-ups proven to reduce no-shows
• HIPAA-compliant SMS and email communication
• Centralized patient conversations across channels
• Improved response rates and faster task completion
• Bi-directional data sync
• Precision-based appointment notifications
• Bulk or segmented SMS/email campaign
• Communication & call analytics
• Text directly from Athenahealth

This pairing gives Athenahealth users the best of both worlds: rock-solid clinical workflows + modern patient engagement.

How Emitrr Improves Core Athenahealth Limitations

Feature Availability Overview

• Contact sync — ✔️
• Reviews — ✔️
• Reminders — ✔️
• Confirmations — ✔️
• No-show follow-ups — ✔️
• Review by patient type — WIP
• AI text generation — ✔️
• AI SMS agent — ✔️
• AI appointment scheduler — ✔️
• AI voicemail transcription — ✔️
• AI calling agent — WIP

FAQs

Final Verdict: Athenahealth vs. Epic: Which One Is Right for Your Practice?

Epic and Athenahealth both offer strong EHR capabilities, but they serve very different needs. Epic is a better choice for large hospitals and health systems that require deep customization, detailed analytics, and well-connected workflows across departments. It’s powerful but costly, complex, and better suited for organizations with robust IT support. 

Athenahealth works best for small to mid-sized practices that want a modern, cloud-based system that is easier to adopt and manage. Its main weakness lies in patient communication. Clinics still struggle with no-shows, limited texting options, and manual follow-ups. 

When paired with Emitrr, Athenahealth becomes much more effective. Automated reminders, AI-driven messaging, fast-fill scheduling, and real-time syncing help address many communication issues practices face. This combination helps reduce no-shows, improve patient response rates, and save staff time. Book a free demo now and get more out of your Athena EHR.