athenahealth Named an Approved EHR Solution Provider by Colorado Regional Extension Center

Company’s Electronic Health Record Service, athenaClinicals®, Available to Assist Eligible Physicians to Participate in HITECH Act

WATERTOWN, Mass. & DENVER (December 27, 2010) – 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 the Colorado Regional Extension Center (CO-REC), has selected athenahealth’s Electronic Health Record service, athenaClinicals®, to be on its list of approved integrated clinical solutions used to help more than 2,200 participating primary care physicians throughout the State of Colorado purchase an EHR. CO-REC is an initiative of six organizations led by CORHIO, the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization. According to CO-REC, two-thirds of Colorado physicians have not yet installed or begun using EHRs in their medical practices despite the federal reimbursement program that begins January 3, 2011.

athenaClinicals is 2011/2012 compliant and was certified as a Complete EHR on September 30, 2010, by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT®), an ONC-ATCB, in accordance with the applicable eligible provider certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). The 2011/2012 criteria support the Stage 1 Meaningful Use measures required to qualify eligible providers and hospitals for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.

“There is a groundswell of understanding building around the distinctions of athenahealth’s cloud-based EHR service, and the endorsement by RECs across the country is further accelerating the education curve to our benefit,” said Jonathan Bush, Chairman and CEO of athenahealth. “A cloud-based service model like ours that delivers knowledge and services over the Internet can ensure that 100% of athenaClinicals clients stay compliant with Meaningful Use criteria, even as changes are introduced. Software, on the other hand, has to be rewritten, repurchased, and reloaded onto servers in order to keep pace with shifts in the administration of healthcare. We are pleased to be recognized as an approved EHR solution by the Colorado REC as the state helps primary care physicians qualify solutions and move the needle on low adoption rates.”

athenahealth recently extended the timeframe in which doctors can qualify for its federal stimulus bonus payment guarantee program, which assures that the company’s web-based services will help eligible doctors across the nation meet EHR certification requirements for achieving Meaningful Use and thereby qualify for reimbursement funds authorized by the HITECH Act. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services formally announced the final definition of Meaningful Use on July 13, 2010. With this deadline extension, physicians will now have until June 30, 2011, to participate in the program. Please visit www.athenahealth.com/bonus to learn more about athenahealth’s EHR and federal stimulus bonus payment guarantee program.

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About athenahealth

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

Source: athenahealth