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WATERTOWN, Mass. & BOSTON, Jan 04, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHN), a leading provider of internet-based business services to physician practices, today announced that Boston-based Caritas Christi Health Care has selected athenahealth's network-based electronic health record (EHR) service, athenaClinicalsSM, for its owned physician network that currently employs over 500 medical providers. Caritas Christi also plans to offer athenahealth's services to its affiliated physician network, which consists of an additional 1,200 providers. Caritas Christi is the largest community-based hospital system in New England, providing community-based medicine and tertiary care in eastern Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. Caritas Christi's owned physician network is currently live on athenahealth's revenue cycle management service, athenaCollectorSM.
"The growing demands on our medical providers and staff to stay current with changing reimbursement protocols, increased consumer responsibility, and performance-based clinical reporting have required our health system to harness more flexible, network-based services like athenahealth's," said Caritas Christi CEO and President Ralph de la Torre. "We feel this new clinical platform will allow us to achieve our aggressive quality-of-care goals and execute on new programs like our recently announced Alternative Quality Contract (AQC) with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts."
The AQC is a significant change from traditional fee-for-service contracts and gives physicians the flexibility to allocate health care resources based on what will have the greatest benefits to patient health. Under the AQC, Caritas Christi will increase its focus on preventative care while optimizing quality and access. In order to maximize the potential of the AQC model for the benefit of its diverse patient population, Caritas Christi has overhauled several corporate structures and is making key strategic partnerships and investments, including a recent agreement with Microsoft to implement the Amalga Unified Intelligence System. The implementation of athenaClinicals as a major system-wide electronic health record platform is aimed at delivering the highest quality of care to patients, while helping to reduce unnecessary costs.
"Given the rapid change we are seeing in health care and what will be required from providers in terms of tracking and reporting clinical information, athenaClinicals will enable us to better control our clinical supply chain, respond to rapidly evolving requirements of emerging programs like the HITECH Act, and enable our physicians to demonstrate meaningful use of an electronic health record system," said Todd Rothenhaus, M.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Caritas Christi.
athenaClinicals is fully integrated with athenahealth's revenue cycle management service. Both services are delivered through athenaNet®, athenahealth's web-based, centrally hosted national software platform. 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. The HITECH Act was signed into law by President Obama on February 17, 2009, as part of the larger stimulus package known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Act includes up to $44,000 total in Medicare payment incentives per eligible provider who demonstrates "meaningful use" of an EHR starting in 2011.
"We could not be more thrilled to be working with one of the nation's most innovative health systems as they look to execute on some very exciting initiatives. athenahealth's centrally hosted EHR service platform will allow Caritas Christi and their medical providers to experience a 'network effect' in which shared clinical knowledge and best practices from across athenahealth's entire national client base can enable them to improve care coordination and patient outcomes through greater transparency into physician performance across their growing network," said Jonathan Bush, athenahealth's Chairman and CEO.
About Caritas Christi Health Care
With over 13,000 employees serving over 600,000 patients annually in 85 communities, Caritas Christi is the largest community-based health care system in New England and the 10th largest employer in Massachusetts. Caritas Christi is a regional health system of compassionate caregivers that demonstrates excellence in service, research, and education. Hospitals in the system include Saint Anne's in Fall River, Holy Family Hospital in Methuen, St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton, Norwood Hospital in Norwood, Carney Hospital in Dorchester, and Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton.
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 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 athenahealth's service offerings, their integration with other services, and the planned provision of services to Caritas Christi's affiliated physicians. 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, Inc. 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, Inc., 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.
Caritas Christi Health CareTeresa Prego, 617-562-5393Vice President of MarketingTeresa.Prego@caritaschristi.orgorathenahealth, Inc.John Hallock, 617-504-0958 (Media)Director, Corporate Communicationsmedia@athenahealth.comorathenahealth, Inc.Jennifer Heizer, 617-402-1322 (Investors)Senior Manager, Investor Relationsinvestorrelations@athenahealth.com
Copyright Business Wire 2010
Thomas Natt, East Coast Sales Manager, SGS, athenahealth, 617-402-1237, tnatt@athenahealth.com
Disclaimer- I work for athenahealth, the views expressed are my own and do not represent the thoughts or opinions of athenahealth.