OREGON MEDICAL ASSOCIATION ALIGNS WITH ATHENAHEALTH TO OFFER PRACTICE MANAGEMENT SERVICES FOR PHYSICIANS STATEWIDE
Over 7,400 Oregon Physicians Now Have Access to a Leading Practice Management Service That Looks to Improve Office Workflow and Reimbursement
PORTLAND, OR and WATERTOWN, MA (May 14, 2007) – athenahealth, Inc., a leading provider of web-based services, knowledge, and software for medical practices, and the Oregon Medical Association (OMA), the state’s largest medical association, today announced that they have aligned to offer athenahealth’s web-based practice management services to over 7,400 OMA physician members. Under the terms of the agreement, the OMA members will receive a discount on athenahealth’s services.
“Physicians are busy and don’t have time to follow up on every unpaid claim like they might want. We believe the services athenahealth provides will better enable our physicians to make their practices more efficient and effective,” said Klaus Martin, MD, president of the Oregon Medical Association. “What sold us on athenahealth was its customer service record, client focused approach and their payer rules engine. We are also enthusiastic about the possibilities of athenahealth’s payer-performance data assisting in our physician advocacy efforts at the Legislature and with third-party payers.”
“Physicians across Oregon can now benefit from a national network of thousands of physicians that will allow them to streamline their practices’ clinical and operational workflow,” said Derek Hedges, vice president of business development at athenahealth. “athenahealth is proud to align ourselves with an organization like the OMA that has been a leading state and national force in advocating for physicians as they confront new market pressures.”
New trends in the marketplace, such as pay-for-performance programs and consumer-directed health care, are factors that are requiring doctors to look to new business and clinical services rather than standalone software that allow them to maximize quality-of-care and operational efficiency.
“During our search for a new clinical and practice management solution, we wanted to avoid traditional software-only solutions based on our past experience of spending tremendous amounts of time and money for systems that don’t always deliver consistent results,” said Paula Kubitz, practice manager for Mt. Scott ENT and Audiology, based in Portland, Oregon. “Having spent over 25 years managing medical groups, I have never been happier with a practice management solution than I am with athenahealth’s. We are excited the OMA has endorsed athenahealth as medical practices need service-based solutions that deliver consistent clinical and administrative results. As more practices adopt athenahealth in Oregon, I believe we’ll all benefit as athenahealth’s payer rules engine will grow and we will all share in the collective knowledge.”
On May 24th, the OMA and athenahealth will present an educational seminar at OMA headquarters to discuss the athenahealth service offerings. For more event information contact Jenn Webster at the OMA, 503-619-8000 .
Source: athenahealth
