This was my first time attending the athenahealth Thrive User Group Conference and I have to admit something right out of the gate: it lived up to the hype. The production level of the Thrive event was absolutely top tier, matching what I have seen at HLTH, ViVE, and PointClickCare’s user meeting. But behind the spectacle, there was a serious educational event packed with practical updates for athenahealth’s customers.
There were a lot of announcements made at Thrive 2026, but one stood out.
athenahealth partners with Epic in four key areas
The biggest news was the partnership between athenahealth and Epic. The companies are collaborating on four things:
- Submitting electronic orders from athenaOne directly to Epic facilities
- Viewing athenaOne lab results as first class data in Epic
- Allowing Epic patients to discover their athenahealth practices and connect them to MyChart (future roadmap item)
- Enabling closed-loop referrals
Closed-loop referrals are the most fascinating to me. Receiving these referrals digitally replaces numerous manual faxes and phone calls for practices. In one of the breakout sessions, Capital Area Pediatrics shared how they dropped their referral turnaround time from 14 days down to three. As I noted in my video breakdown, “The bottom line for Capital Area Pediatrics is that 360X is accelerating specialty access while at the same time reducing manual follow-up.”
Making things easy for practices and partners
I had the chance to sit down with several athenahealth executives, customers, and partners. I put together a full recap video so you can see the notable news from Thrive 2026.
Watch the video to find out:
- How athenahealth is using AI to ingest commercial payer contracts and identify discrepancies between contracted rates and actual paid amounts.
- How patients will soon be able to securely query their athenaOne health information using the AI assistant Claude.
- How athenahealth made the partner experience at Thrive super easy
Video features: Jeff Becker from athenahealth, Kaley Meadows from Anderson Hills Pediatrics, Renata Dinamarco from Suki, Monica Bolbjerg from Qure4u, Jonah Hodes from Artera, Emily Smythe from Luma Health, and Veronica Brand from ELLKAY.
Questions Healthcare Leaders Are Asking
How does the new Epic and athenahealth partnership handle closed-loop referrals? The partnership uses the 360X standard to enable closed-loop referrals between the two EHR systems. By replacing manual faxes with direct secure messaging, referrals flow seamlessly from athenaOne to Epic, accelerating specialty access and reducing manual follow-up for practices.
What is the primary benefit of the Epic and athenahealth interoperability integration? The primary benefit is bridging the gap between ambulatory and acute care settings. The collaboration allows for direct electronic order submission, viewing athenaOne lab results as first-class data in Epic, and future MyChart connectivity, dramatically reducing administrative friction.
Learn more about athenahealth at https://www.athenahealth.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment