athenaClinicals℠ Selected as EHR Partner for Virginia Regional Extension Center

Federally designated Regional Extension Center for Virginia to utilize athenahealth’s web-based electronic health record service to drive statewide adoption of healthcare technology

RICHMOND, Va. & WATERTOWN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHN), a leading provider of web-based practice management, electronic health record (EHR), and patient communication services to medical groups, today announced that Virginia HIT, the federally designated Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center for Virginia, in partnership with the Center for Innovative Technology, has selected athenahealth as an EHR solution partner to enable nearly 2,300 primary care physicians across the Commonwealth of Virginia to take advantage of the benefits that athenahealth’s technology can bring to their practices. athenahealth also previously launched a guarantee program that assures its services will help doctors across the nation, including Virginia, meet EHR certification requirements for achieving “Meaningful Use” and thereby qualify for reimbursement funds authorized by the HITECH Act.

Virginia HIT is a component of the Virginia Healthcare Quality Center (VHQC), a health care consulting firm that holds the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization contract for Virginia.

“Virginia HIT conducted an extremely thorough selection process to whittle almost 200 potential EHR solutions down to three, all of which are provided via the Internet. We are confident athenahealth’s solution will help physicians attain Meaningful Use of EHRs as quickly as possible, which should accelerate improvements in the quality of patient care,” said VHQC President and CEO Donald A. Glozer, MHA, FACHE.

athenahealth’s web-based EHR service, athenaClinicals, is notably different from legacy software models that require upfront investments in software, hardware, and training. The base technology of athenaClinicals, athenahealth’s associated service commitment, and related product intelligence are delivered over the Internet, which allows for the platform to be continually updated and improved. This flexibility benefits physicians, who do not have to make subsequent investments for new iterations of the offering every time there are minor enhancements. Additionally, athenaClinicals recently achieved 100% client confidence in meeting 2011 Meaningful Use Standards in a report of Ambulatory EMR solutions conducted by KLAS.

“With the opportunity to receive federal stimulus money on the horizon, it’s more important than ever for doctors to seek out and implement the services that will help them achieve Meaningful Use,” said Jonathan Bush, Chairman and CEO of athenahealth. “We are excited the Virginia Regional Extension Center has recognized the immense value of the web, and the benefits that athenahealth’s web-based EHR service can bring to doctors in the Commonwealth of Virginia by leveraging our patented virtual implementation capabilities, low-cost service, and unique offering for the small physician practice market.”

About Virginia HIT

Virginia HIT’s services include direct, individualized and on-site technical assistance to small and rural primary care practices in selecting and implementing a certified EHR to achieve Meaningful Use and qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments, as well as avoid future penalties. For more information on Virginia HIT or its parent organization, VHQC, please visit www.vhqc.org/vhit.

About athenahealth

athenahealth, Inc. is a leading provider of web-based business services for medical groups. athenahealth’s service offerings are based on proprietary web-native practice management and electronic health record (EHR) software, a continuously updated payer knowledge-base, integrated back-office service operations, and automated and live patient communication services. For more information, please visit www.athenahealth.com or call (888) 652-8200.

This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the anticipated benefits and potential for meaningful use of athenahealth’s service offerings and the nature of prospective markets for those offerings. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements. In particular, the risks and uncertainties include, among other things: the risk that our service offerings will not operate in the manner that we expect, due to design flaws, security breaches, or otherwise; potential interruptions or delays in our internet-based service offerings; our reliance upon third parties, such as computer hardware, software, data-hosting, and internet infrastructure providers, which reliance may result in failures or disruptions in our service offerings; errors or omissions included in our payer and clinical intelligence rules engine and database; and the evolving and complex government regulatory compliance environment in which we and our clients operate. Existing and prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. athenahealth undertakes no obligation to update or revise the information contained in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or circumstances, or otherwise. For additional disclosure regarding these and other risks faced by athenahealth, please see the disclosure contained in our public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, available on the Investors section of our website at http://www.athenahealth.com and on the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov.



CONTACT:

athenahealth, Inc.
John Hallock (Media), 617-402-1428
Director, Corporate Communications
[email protected]
or
Jennifer Heizer (Investors), 617-402-1322
Director, Investor Relations
[email protected]

KEYWORDS:   United States  North America  Massachusetts  Virginia

INDUSTRY KEYWORDS:   Technology  Data Management  Software  Practice Management  Health  Hospitals  Other Health  General Health

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