athenahealth’s EHR Selected as a Five Star Vendor By West Virginia Regional Health Information Technology Extension Center

CHARLESTON, W.Va.& WATERTOWN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--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 its EHR service platform, athenaClinicals®, has been selected by the West Virginia Regional Health Information Technology Extension Center (WVRHITEC) as a Five Star vendor in its EHR Vendor Recognition Program (VRP).

“We are excited about our relationships with our Five Star vendors as our center works to facilitate greater adoption of EHRs and to improve health care through meaningful use criteria”

WVRHITEC is a federally funded project to assist health care providers with electronic health record use and to prepare them to qualify for federal EHR incentive payments. The center’s VRP is designed to help connect health care providers interested in acquiring an EHR system with vendors who have met certain thresholds of clinical functionality and service developed by the WVRHITEC, as well as The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) requirements for providers to achieve “Meaningful Use.” Five Star recognition is the WVRHITEC’s highest level under its EHR VRP. Five Star vendors, such as athenahealth, were designated following a market research review, an open request for Information (RFI), and an evaluation by the WVRHITEC’s staff and physician advisers. The WVRHITEC will work closely with vendors through the implementation process.

“We are excited about our relationships with our Five Star vendors as our center works to facilitate greater adoption of EHRs and to improve health care through meaningful use criteria,” said Dwayne Edwards, Director of the WVRHITEC.

Through June 30, 2011, physicians on the athenahealth network can participate in the Company’s own federal stimulus bonus payment guarantee program. This program ensures the Company’s web-based services will help providers nationwide, including those in West Virginia, meet EHR certification requirements for achieving Meaningful Use and thereby qualify for HITECH reimbursement funds.

Further, athenahealth recently announced that the software component of athenaClinicals, Version 10.10, is 2011/2012 compliant and was certified as a Complete EHR 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. 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). Please visit www.athenahealth.com/bonus to learn more about athenahealth's EHR and the federal stimulus bonus payment guarantee program.

“Compared to the broad set of available EHR software solutions, athenahealth’s approach to delivering a service in the cloud is a leap forward on the innovation curve,” said Jonathan Bush, Chairman and CEO of athenahealth. “We are pleased that our model was recognized by WVRHITEC as it sets off to achieve its significant goals of accelerating the meaningful use of EHRs in the state of West Virginia, and be a vital connector on a national scale.”

About the West Virginia Regional Health Information Extension Center

The West Virginia Regional Health Information Technology Extension Center (WVRHITEC) was created as part of a national program by the Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology/U.S. DHHS. It has been established as part of the federal stimulus plan and is operating under the West Virginia Health Improvement Institute (http://www.wvhealthimprovement.org). This project is supported by Grant Number 90RC0017/01 from the Office of the National Coordinator, Department of Health and Human Services. For more information, please go to www.wvrhitec.org.

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 [phone].

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.