Employer Portal — Setup a Hub for Corporate Billing

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Overview

With athenahealth’s Employer Portal, your organization can simplifyfinancial operations, enhance transparency, and accelerate payment cycles. Designed specifically for contract payers and healthcare providers offering occupational health services, the employer portal provides a centralized hub for managing, tracking, and paying invoices. This cloud-based solution ensures contractpayers have visibility into their financial interactions with healthcare providers, reducing administrative burdens and improving cash flow management.

The Employer Portal builds on our athenaOne platform, offering robust invoicing capabilities and features designed to meet the unique needs of contract payers, while integrating with your existing workflows.

Employer Portal login

Practice users do not access the Employer Portal. The employers access the portal:

https://billing.web.athena.io/employerportal/login

To see workflows intended for employers, see the Instructions for employers section of topic.

Note: Your practice has a setup task to complete. You must invite corporate payers to the portal.

If not already completed, you must create a corporate account per employer and a contact for each employer representative that wants access to the portal.

For more information, see the Setup instructions section of this topic.

User access and permissions

To add and manage your practice's local insurance packages, you must have the Local Insurance Package Administration user permission (included in the Billing Admin user role).

Setup instructions

Inviting a corporate payer to the portal

Important: The email cannot be associated with a patient portal account or they will not be able to register.

To invite a corporate payer to the portal:

Click the Settings icon > Under ADMIN click Billing.
Under Practice links > Insurance package, click Corporate Accounts.
Open to the Contacts tab.
Either create a new contact or find the existing contact you wish to invite.

Note:

The email address cannot be linked to an existing patient portal account. Otherwise, registration will not be possible. If an email is entered and it is already associated with a patient portal account, an alert will be triggered. It is recommended to request a new email address from the payer.
Click Send Invite. The user is moved an Invited status.

Note: An email address is required to send the invite. If the invite button is not visible, ensure the contact has a valid email address.

Note:Emails can take 5 to 10 minutes to be delivered.
The contact receives an email invitation where they can register for their portal and gain access. The following image is an example of the invitation email.

Note: The Register Now button will never expire, and payers can register anytime after receiving this email.
If a user registers to the portal, their status will update to Registered.

Tip: You can click Resend Invite to re-send the email to the contact at any point as needed.

Benefits

This feature provides the following benefits:

Benefit	Feature	Description
Centralized invoice management	Centralized invoice hub	Corporate payers can view billed invoices in one place, eliminating the need to manage multiple statements across different channels.
Centralized invoice management	Batch payments	Simplify transactions by enabling corporate payers to pay multiple invoices at once using credit cards.
Transparent financial workflows	Detailed invoice breakdown	Each invoice includes line-item details, allowing corporate payers to easily review charges and reconcile them with their records.
	Dispute management tools	Corporate payers can flag specific claims for review or dispute directly within the portal, facilitating faster resolution and communication with billing staff.
	Automated reminders and notifications	Corporate payers receive timely alerts for new, overdue, and re-issued invoices, ensuring everything is reviewed.
Seamless integration with existing systems	Integration with athenaOne	The portal syncs directly with athenaOne’s billing system, ensuring daily data updates.
	Customizable branding	Tailor the portal to reflect your organization’s branding for a consistent, professional experience.
	Secure, cloud-based access	HIPAA-compliant security protocols ensure sensitive financial information is protected while allowing access.

Employer Portal key features table

Feature	Description
Centralized home page	Displays billed invoices, their status, and account balance with the option to add invoices to a payment cart.
Detailed invoice page	Provides a breakdown of claims, procedures, balances, and patient information with the option to add invoices to a payment cart.
Secure registration	Employers register via email invitation and set up secure access with account recovery options.
Payment processing	Employers can select invoices, pay securely using a PCI-compliant credit card tool, and receive downloadable receipts. Payments are automatically deposited into your bank account.

Corporate account fields that will appear in the portal

Corporate Account - Name: This will appear on the Portal as the employer’s name.
Corporate Account - Address: This will be displayed as the address on file for the Corporate payer
Corporate Account - Phone: This will be displayed as the phone number on file for the Corporate payer

For a detailed guide on creating a corporate account, see User Guide — Corporate Billing in O-help.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Employer Portal features and workflows

You can view the following pages:

Home page
Bill payment page
Invoice detail page
Payment cart page
Dispute claim on an invoice
Invoice notification (for new, overdue, re-issued invoices)

Registration instructions for employers

Check your email
- Look for an email titled Employer Portal.
- This email contains a secure link to access the registration portal.
- Click Register Now in the email to begin the onboarding steps.
Didn’t receive the email?
- Emails can take 5 to 10 minutes to be delivered. If you don’t see the email in your inbox after this time, please check your spam or junk folder.
- If it’s still not there, contact the practice directly to request a new invitation.
Set your password.
- Confirm your email on the registration page, which will then bring you
- Your password must meet the following criteria:
  - Consists of 8 to 72 characters.
  - Contains lowercase, uppercase letters and numbers.
  - Cannot match any of the last 4 passwords for that account.
  - Accounts lock out after 10 failed login attempts.
Enter a phone number, voice call or security question to be used as a recovery method.
Payers will be required to select the Provider Location (Context). Depending on how many Contexts this payer has access to would determine how many Provider Locations are shown.
After selecting a Provider Location and payer will then have to select the Corporate Account name in order to access the invoices for that account. If a Payer has access to multiple accounts, they can use the picker screen to navigate to their desired account.
Sign the terms and conditions. (This is only required once)
Access the portal.

Post-login users can switch between corporate accounts by using the "Switch Account" button.

Home page

On the Home page, you'll see the latest issued invoices and their status, along with your total account balance, in the top right widget. You can add invoices to your payment cart directly from this page. To start the payment process use the Action button to the left of each invoice to add or remove from the payment cart.

Bulk actions can be made to add or remove multiple invoices to your cart by clicking the box next to the invoice ID column header.

Home page field reference

Column	Description
Invoice	The invoice ID, which is a hyperlink that takes you to detailed information on the invoice.
Invoice Date	The date the invoice was first billed.
Due By	The date payment is due before it is considered overdue.
Status	The current status, which can be Due, Overdue, In-Review , Closed, Pending.
Original Invoice Total	The amount when the invoice was first billed.
Payments	The total payments made on the invoice.
Remaining Balance	The amount remaining which needs to be paid on the invoice.

Invoice Detail page

This page shows claims and their procedure information related to a specific invoice. To view information about each claim including patient data, procedures and payments, click the action button for that claim. Additionally, you have the option to add the invoice to your cart for payment.

Invoice field reference

Invoice details include	Description
Invoice total	The original amount when the invoice was first billed.
Remaining total	The total of charges minus payments, plus transfer-ins, minus transfer-outs, and adjustments.
Invoice date	The date of the last billed invoice.
Due by	The date by which payment is due before it is considered overdue.

Proceed to pay for an invoice

After clicking Proceed to Payment.
Employers can enter in their credit card information in the secure credit card processing tool.

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Note: This tool is PCI compliant.
After entering and verifying the credit card information, employers will be taken to the confirm payment detail page, where they can review and ensure all information is correct before submitting the payment.
Once payment is complete, employers get routed to the receipt page and have the option to download their receipt.
Currently, since payers can only make full invoice payments, the invoice remains the best option for confirming details such as: the Service Date, Patient Name, and Charge Amount. The following image is an example of the receipt.

Dispute a claim

When a corporate payer disputes a claim in the portal.

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When you click Dispute, you can dispute the claim in the Submit Dispute window.

Dispute reasons reference

Kickcode	Dispute reason in Employer Portal	Dispute reason on claim note in athenaOne
EM	Incorrect employee/patient	The corporate payer does not recognize this employee/patient, or the service was provided to the wrong employee/patient.
DN	Additional documentation needed	The corporate payer requires additional documentation (such as lab results, chain of custody, outcomes of a physical, etc.) for payment.
WA	Incorrect charge amount	The corporate payer has indicated that the charge on the claim does not match the contracted rate.
CH	Incorrect service	The corporate payer has indicated an issue with the billed procedure, which may be incorrect or outside of their protocols.
AP	Charge already paid	The corporate payer has indicated that the charge(s) on this claim have already been paid.
XX	Other	The corporate payer has denied this claim.