1. Who are Allscripts, athenahealth and Cerner today?
Two of the three names people search have changed hands or names since 2022, so the first job is knowing which company you would actually be contracting with.
| Name searched | What it is now | Who it says it serves | Published price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Allscripts EMR | Allscripts now goes by Veradigm (veradigm.com: “Allscripts is now Veradigm”). Its hospital and large-practice products were sold in 2022 and now sit with Altera Digital Health | Veradigm: healthcare providers, health plans and payers, life sciences and health IT vendors. Altera: hospitals and large physician practices | None; demo or contact |
| athenaOne | athenahealth’s cloud suite: EHR, revenue cycle management and patient engagement for ambulatory care (athenahealth.com) | Ambulatory practices of every size, from start-ups to enterprise health systems, in its own words | None; quote via demo |
| Cerner PowerChart | Oracle completed its acquisition of Cerner in June 2022; the business is Oracle Health (oracle.com/health). PowerChart is the name of Cerner’s clinician-facing EHR application | Providers, payers and public health organisations, on what it calls enterprise-grade infrastructure | None; contact or request a demo |
Every one of those is a large, established vendor. None of that makes any of them right or wrong for a small clinic; it tells you how the purchase will work. You will talk to sales, receive a quote, and sign a contract whose terms matter as much as the price.
2. What happened to Allscripts EMR?
Allscripts split in two: the company renamed itself Veradigm, and its hospital and large-practice EHRs were sold to N. Harris Computer Corporation, which runs them as Altera Digital Health.
Harris announced on 6 May 2022 that it had completed the purchase of the Allscripts Hospitals and Large Physician Practices business segment, covering Sunrise, Paragon, Allscripts TouchWorks, Allscripts Opal and dbMotion, and that the segment would operate as Altera Digital Health (Altera newsroom). The remaining company took the Veradigm name, and its website lists an ambulatory EHR, practice management, scheduling and e-prescribing among its products, alongside data and analytics businesses for payers and life sciences.
| If you mean | You are now dealing with | Ask |
|---|---|---|
| TouchWorks, Sunrise or Paragon | Altera Digital Health | Who holds your contract and support today, and on what renewal terms |
| The Allscripts ambulatory or practice EHR | Veradigm | Which current product the quote is for, and its roadmap commitments in writing |
| Allscripts e-prescribing | Veradigm | Whether it is a standalone tool or part of the EHR you are buying |
For a small clinic searching the old name, the practical point is simple: make sure the quote names the current product and the company that will support it, because the brand on old reviews and forum posts may no longer match either.
3. What does athenaOne cost a small practice?
athenahealth does not publish a price for athenaOne; the cost comes from a quote, so the questions you ask decide what you can compare. Of the three names here, athenahealth is the one that explicitly sells to small and start-up practices, and its own description centres on cloud EHR, medical billing and patient engagement for ambulatory care.
Two pricing models are common in this part of the market, and they behave very differently as a practice grows. Ask which one your quote uses, rather than assuming:
| Model | What you pay | What makes it rise | Ask for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription per provider | A monthly fee per provider | Adding providers | The fee per provider, what is included, and the renewal increase cap |
| Percentage of collections | A share of what the practice collects | Collecting more, from any source | The percentage, the base it applies to, and any minimum |
| One-time costs | Implementation, training, data migration | Scope and how much help you take | A fixed number in writing, not an estimate |
For an insurance-billing practice, a vendor whose platform is built around revenue cycle management may justify its price in collections. A cash-pay clinic should ask the opposite question: how the system handles memberships, packages, deposits, saved cards and point-of-sale payments, because that is where its revenue lives. Ask to see each one in the demo rather than on a feature list.
4. Is Cerner PowerChart an option for a small clinic?
Most small clinics that search for PowerChart are not looking to buy it directly; they used it, or their referral hospital runs it. Oracle Health presents its platform to providers, payers and public health organisations, and buying starts with contacting sales.
If your clinic is affiliated with a hospital or health system that runs Oracle Health, the realistic route is often through that hospital rather than a direct purchase. Many health systems extend their EHR to affiliated practices, and federal rules let a hospital donate EHR software and services to physicians under specific conditions, including that the practice pays at least 15% of the donor’s cost. Those arrangements have legal requirements on both sides, so take the offer to a healthcare attorney before signing.
| Situation | What to ask |
|---|---|
| Your hospital runs Oracle Health and offers access | Your share of the cost, who owns the data, and what happens if the affiliation ends |
| You want to send and receive records with that hospital | Whether your own EHR can exchange records with theirs, rather than running theirs |
| You are an independent cash-pay clinic | Whether an enterprise platform fits a practice your size at all, before any demo |
5. How do enterprise EHR contracts differ from small-clinic software?
The difference is less the software than the contract: term, implementation, price basis and exit. These are the terms commonly seen in enterprise and quoted EHR contracts, against what small-clinic software commonly publishes. They describe the market, not any one vendor above.
| Term | Common in quoted enterprise contracts | Common in published small-clinic plans |
|---|---|---|
| Length | Multi-year, with auto-renewal | Month-to-month or annual |
| Implementation | A scoped project, priced separately | An activation fee, or included |
| Price basis | Providers, users, locations, collections or modules, negotiated | A published per-provider or per-plan price |
| Price increases | An escalator in the contract | Notice before a change |
| Data on exit | Defined in the contract; may be priced | Often a free export, if published |
| Support | Tiers by contract | Included in the plan |
None of those enterprise terms are unreasonable for a health system; they are a poor fit for a three-person clinic that needs to know its monthly number. Clinic software pricing models explains each pricing unit, and how to switch EHR without losing patient data covers the exit.
6. What should a small cash-pay clinic look for instead?
Look for a system whose price you can read before the call and whose core screens match how your clinic earns money. Whichever vendors you shortlist, big or small, score them on the same rows:
| Requirement | Why it matters to a small clinic | How to check it |
|---|---|---|
| A published price | You can budget before the sales call | The pricing page, not a quote request |
| No long-term lock | A bad fit can be undone | Month-to-month or a term you choose |
| Staff logins free | Front desk and assistants do not raise the bill | Ask what a second login costs |
| Cash-pay billing built in | Memberships, packages, deposits and saved cards are your revenue | Run a membership charge in the demo |
| Notes, intake, consents and telehealth on one record | Fewer places to re-enter the same patient | Book, chart and charge one test patient |
| A free, complete export | Your records stay yours | Ask for a sample export file |
How to evaluate clinic software turns this into a weighted score sheet. For a named comparison of systems built for cash-pay clinics, see DrChrono alternatives and the four-way comparison.
7. When is one of these the right choice?
Often, for the practices they are built for. A large vendor is the sensible choice in several situations, and we would say so to a clinic in one of them:
| If you are | A sensible direction |
|---|---|
| An insurance-heavy practice that wants billing services alongside the EHR | A vendor built around revenue cycle management, such as athenaOne, compared on a written quote |
| Affiliated with a hospital on Oracle Health | Ask the hospital what access it offers, and have the terms reviewed |
| Already on a Veradigm or Altera product with years of templates | Price staying against moving; a migration should buy you something specific |
| A cash-pay hormone, longevity, weight-loss, IV or med spa clinic | A system built for cash-pay workflows, with a published price |
Aminova is built for the last row. It is month-to-month, publishes its price ($199 a month on Prescribing with one prescriber and one AI scribe seat, $99 a month for the first three months for new clinics on monthly billing, $250 activation), and includes unlimited staff. It is not built to be a hospital EHR, and an insurance-heavy group with a billing department should weigh a system built around claims.
8. Frequently asked questions
Is Allscripts still an EMR company?
Allscripts now goes by Veradigm, whose website lists an ambulatory EHR and practice management among its products. Its hospital and large-practice EHRs, including Sunrise and TouchWorks, were sold in 2022 and are run by Altera Digital Health.
How much does athenaOne cost?
athenahealth does not publish a price for athenaOne; it is quoted after a demo. Ask whether the quote is a per-provider subscription or a percentage of collections, and get implementation, migration and renewal terms in writing.
What is Cerner PowerChart?
PowerChart is the name of Cerner’s clinician-facing EHR application. Oracle completed its acquisition of Cerner in June 2022, and the business is now Oracle Health.
Can a small clinic use Cerner or Oracle Health?
Usually through an affiliated hospital or health system rather than a direct purchase. Hospital EHR donation arrangements have legal conditions, including the practice paying at least 15% of the cost, so have the terms reviewed by an attorney.
Is athenaOne good for a small practice?
athenahealth says it serves practices of every size, including start-ups, and its platform centres on EHR, billing and patient engagement. Whether it fits depends on your revenue model; a cash-pay clinic should test memberships, packages and payments in the demo.
What should a small cash-pay clinic choose instead of an enterprise EHR?
A system with a published price, no long-term lock, free staff logins, cash-pay billing built in and a free complete export. Score every vendor on the same sheet.