March 23, 2010
Hudson Headwaters Health Network Goes Live on athenaClinicals to Support Patient-Centered Medical Home Initiative

Community Health Network Leveraging athenahealth's Web-based Clinical Service to Meet NCQA Reporting Requirements and Drive Improved Patient Care across Upstate New York

WATERTOWN, Mass. & QUEENSBURY, N.Y., Mar 23, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHN), a leading provider of internet-based business services to physician practices, today announced that Hudson Headwaters Health Network, a not-for-profit, community-based network of health centers and health programs serving the Lake George/Adirondack and Glens Falls Region of New York, has expanded its current relationship with athenahealth and is now live with athenahealth's electronic health record (EHR) service, athenaClinicals^SM.

Hudson Headwaters' 100 medical providers will use athenaClincals to qualify for the Patient-Centered Medical Home^TM national program as their organization aims to improve patient care and outcomes across its growing network of community health centers. Last year, Hudson Headwaters' twelve health centers began using athenahealth's revenue cycle management service, athenaCollector^SM, to help drive improved operations. The health network covers 3,700 square miles in four different counties providing care through 280,000 patient visits annually.

"Transforming our patient records from paper to electronic files is a big step towards improving quality of care and efficiency," said John Rugge, M.D., CEO of Hudson Headwaters. "It also vastly improves our ability to track patient outcomes, a key part of the Adirondack Region Medical Home Pilot, a new model for care that emphasizes the role of primary care in keeping people healthy and holding down costs."

Under the Pilot, which is commencing this year, participating primary health care providers will receive enhanced insurance reimbursements in exchange for more responsibility, increased care coordination, and achieving national standards for medical homes. "Primary care practices that participate in the Pilot will eventually need to show with measurable data that comprehensive primary care is effective at improving outcomes and containing costs. For us, this would not be possible without athenaClinicals," continued Rugge. "We are extremely pleased to be extending our relationship with athenahealth to enable the entire Adirondack region to protect and build on existing community health services."

athenaClinicals is fully integrated with athenahealth's revenue cycle management service, athenaCollector. Combined, these software-enabled services (SeS) include continually updated payer-specific billing rules, advanced e-prescribing capabilities, back-office processing specialists, and an evaluation and management coding support tool to help providers obtain appropriate reimbursement for practice-specific pay-for-performance payer contracts. All areas of the practices are able to share clinical and billing history information for patients and monitor performance based on best practice metrics that are automatically tracked and reported.

"Hudson Headwaters Health Network, a Federally Qualified Health Center, has been recognized by federal authorities and state agencies for their leadership in rural health care and for pioneering new approaches to regional health planning and delivery," said Jonathan Bush, athenahealth's Chairman and CEO. "Part of their continued foresight is their use of a network-based clinical service like athenaClinicals that will allow them to connect all of their dispersed clinic locations and drive quality-of-care best practices for patients across upstate New York. athenahealth is honored to help in their efforts."

athenahealth is focused on applying its deep knowledge and best practices for rapidly discovering and implementing new payment and clinical rules to the task of continually monitoring emerging requirements for the HITECH Act, Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI), and other emerging commercial insurer pay-for-performance programs.

About Hudson Headwaters Health Network

Hudson Headwaters is a not-for-profit, community-based network of health centers, serving the Adirondack/Lake George/Glens Falls region for nearly 30 years. Its health centers are located in Bolton Landing, Chestertown, Glens Falls, Indian Lake, Moreau, Moriah, North Creek, Queensbury, Schroon Lake, Ticonderoga and Warrensburg. For more information call (518) 761-0300. Hudson Headwaters is a Federally Qualified Health Center.

About athenahealth, Inc.

athenahealth, Inc. is a leading provider of Internet-based business services for physician practices. 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 benefits of the athenahealth's service offerings, their integration with the systems of Hudson Headwaters Health Network, the anticipated growth of Hudson Headwaters Health Network; and the anticipated launch of the Adirondack Region Medical Home Pilot. 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.

SOURCE: athenahealth, Inc.

(Media)
athenahealth, Inc.
John Hallock, 617-402-1428
Director, Corporate Communications
media@athenahealth.com
or
(Investors)
athenahealth, Inc.
Jennifer Heizer, 617-402-1322
Director, Investor Relations
investorrelations@athenahealth.com

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