User Guide — The Patient Workflow

• Registration
• Scheduling
• Appointment confirmation
• Appointment rescheduling
• Confirmation of eligibility (athenaCollector only)
• Check-in
• Patient payment collection (athenaCollector only)
• Checkout
• Coding (athenaCollector only)
• Charge entry (athenaCollector only)

The patient workflow is divided into three general sections:

1. Pre-visit (before the patient arrives in the office)
2. Visit — The 5-Stage Patient Encounter (while the patient is present in the office)
3. Post-visit (after the patient leaves the office)

athenahealth recommends a patient workflow that increases the likelihood that your staff will generate "clean claims" on the first try and collect overdue patient balances before providing services.

To this end, athenaOne is designed to support the "upside down revenue cycle" model of medical billing management. In this model, front-office staff capture vital patient demographic, insurance, and clinical information at the earliest point in the patient appointment process, instead of during the appointment follow-up process.