MAINE’S MEDICAL NETWORK, INC. AND ATHENAHEALTH, INC. TO OFFER ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD AND PRACTICE MANAGEMENT SERVICES TO STATE MEDICAL PROVIDERS

New Alliance to Help Over 4,000 Maine Medical Providers Operate More Efficient Medical Offices and Participate in New Federal HITECH Stimulus Act

PORTLAND, Maine & WATERTOWN (June 03, 2009) – athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHN), a leading provider of Internet-based business services to physician practices, and Medical Network, Inc. (MedNet), Maine’s largest independent preferred provider organization with over 4,000 medical provider members, today announced a new alliance. As a result of this alliance, MedNet providers practicing in all sixteen state counties can now have preferred access to athenahealth’s integrated electronic health record (EHR) service, athenaClinicalsSM, and revenue cycle management service, athenaCollectorSM. This relationship will enable MedNet providers to more easily participate in the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH).

The HITECH Act was enacted by President Obama on February 17, 2009, as part of the larger stimulus package known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. This Act includes incentives to qualified medical providers demonstrating “meaningful use” of an EHR, starting in 2011.

“We are impressed with athenahealth’s products and services, which have the capacity to significantly improve a physician’s ability to deliver quality care, helping to link rural physician practices and avoid unnecessary and costly duplication of services, while reducing the administrative complexity of practice operations,” said William Maxwell, MD, of Portland, MedNet’s Chairman. “Additionally, athenahealth has demonstrated its investment in Maine by establishing its operations center in Belfast, supporting Maine employment and underlining their commitment to improving healthcare delivery in this state,” continued John Baker, MD, of Newport, and MedNet’s Vice Chairman.

“Given the size of our provider organization and the dispersed geographic nature of our membership, we feel athenahealth’s network-based services will allow our medical providers to instantly become connected on a common statewide and national platform. We also feel it will enable them to achieve better financial outcomes in their medical offices as well as more easily participate in and receive the maximum allowable incentives under the HITECH Act and other emerging pay-for-reporting initiatives from commercial health insurers,” said Robert J. Hillman, Chief Executive Officer of MedNet. “Additionally, athenahealth’s suite of services is wholly web-based, allowing for a more affordable solution for MedNet’s small physician practices. We are thrilled to join with athenahealth, which continues to expand its service operations in Maine.”

In addition to offering EHR services to enable HITECH compliance for Maine medical providers over the course of the new five-year government incentive program, athenahealth’s software-enabled services (SeS) are already designed to deliver consistent financial and clinical results with very low initial investment and rapid implementation and training. athenahealth’s athenaCollector service is a physician revenue cycle management offering that integrates web-based practice management software, continually updated payer knowledge, and back-office processing specialists into a single service. athenahealth’s proprietary payer and clinical rules engine, athenaRules, is a real-time database of payer rules and regulations with new rules being continuously added. MedNet members will now have access to athenahealth’s award-winning athenaCollector practice management and billing service, which is designed to deliver faster reimbursement, increased revenue, and, ultimately, improved practice workflow and operations.

“athenahealth and MedNet share a common goal to provide technology and services that will allow Maine medical providers to elevate the quality-of-care delivered while minimizing administrative hassles associated with operating a medical office,” said Jonathan Bush, Chairman and CEO of athenahealth. “As medical groups, especially small independent physician practices, look to deal with the inherent challenges presented by emerging pay-for-performance programs and the HITECH Act, it will be critical that they look to network-based clinical services that are aimed at maximizing care delivery and the payment for it. athenahealth’s EHR service and related functionality will help Maine physician practices better understand the emerging reporting rules associated with these programs, as athenahealth service teams work to build various clinical rules and measures into office workflows and update our national physician network daily in an effort to maximize physician participation and the delivery-of-care.”

For additional information on specifics around the HITECH Act and athenahealth’s EHR service offering, please visit: http://www.athenahealth.com/campaign/hitech/index.php.

Source: ATHENAHEALTH