Service Overview — athenaCommunicator

Unlimited use of phone, email, and SMS-based automated messaging services:

• ReminderCall — Appointment reminders
• ResultsCall — Automated delivery of lab and test results
• GroupCall — Automated messaging campaigns targeted to specific groups of patients
• Campaign Library
• Campaign Builder
• Self-Pay reminders — Automated delivery of Self-Pay reminder messages

Call and messaging holidays

 

athenaCommunicator services do not place phone calls of any kind on the following holidays. Calls scheduled for these holidays go out one calling day earlier, based on the practice settings for calling days:

• New Year's Day
• Memorial Day
• Independence Day (July 4th)
• Labor Day
• Thanksgiving Day
• Christmas Eve
• Christmas Day
• New Year's Eve

For ReminderCall, GroupCall, ResultsCall, and Self-Pay reminders, the calling system adds a day to the calling window for the day before a holiday.

 

Email and text messages

For the holidays listed above, athenaCommunicator services send email and SMS text messages except for these GroupCall campaigns:

• Immediate Cancellation
• Weather
• Same-day custom campaigns

If messages for these campaigns are configured to be sent on the holiday (or after the message window closes on the day before the holiday), email and text messages are not sent until the next (non-holiday) business day.

Note: For more information about message windows, see Message Windows for athenaCommunicator Automated Messages.

 

Self-Pay Reminders and Bank Holidays:

For Self-Pay reminders, athenaCommunicator observes bank holidays, and on the following days, we do not send any Self-Pay reminders (calls, emails, or text messages):

• Martin Luther King Day

• President's Day

• Juneteenth

• Columbus Day (Indigenous People's Day)

• Veteran's Day

Messages scheduled for bank holidays go out one day earlier, based on the practice settings for message days.

 

Unlimited use of live operators on redirects from the automated messaging platform:

• Extended-hour staffing across all time zones.
  
• ReminderCall redirects for scheduling.
  Scheduling redirects occur when patients request to reschedule their appointment during an outgoing reminder call. athenaCommunicator immediately connects the patient to an athenahealth employee, who reschedules the appointment without the practice needing to participate.
• Self-Pay reminder call redirects for payment of patient balances.
  Self-Pay redirects occur when patients request to pay their outstanding balances during an outgoing Self-Pay reminder call. athenaCommunicator immediately connects the patient to an athenahealth employee, who can accept a credit card payment over the phone.
  Note: To use live operators for Self-Pay calls, the practice or provider group must have Credit Card Plus.

The Patient Portal is a major feature of the athenaCommunicator service. On the Patient Portal, your patients can:

• Review their health information online
• Send secure messages to their providers, including prescription refill requests
• View, download, and transmit their health records
• Review their test results
• Schedule appointments
• Check in for appointments
• View appointment reminders (ticklers) and past appointments
• Pay outstanding balances
• Review their personal demographic information

Note: For practices that use athenaClinicals but not athenaCommunicator, athenahealth offers the Patient Information Center (PIC) as a basic portal that makes it possible for your providers to meet relevant quality program measures.

Unlimited use of Self-Pay reminder functionality, coordinated by athenahealth:

• athenahealth absorbs all statement fees
• Paper statements to nonpatient Web Portal users
• Electronic statements to Patient Portal users
• GroupCall collection campaigns by phone, email, text message, and Patient Portal
• athenahealth operators for pay-by-phone redirects
• "Soft" collection letters delivered via the Patient Portal
• Online credit and debit card payments

Note: Patients who have Credit Card Plus card-on-file agreements with your practice do not receive Self-Pay reminder calls because they have an agreement with your practice to charge their credit card when they have an outstanding balance.