BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J. & 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 that it will be providing its revenue cycle management services to Summit Medical Group (SMG), New Jersey’s largest independently operated, multispecialty medical group. SMG serves patients in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area and will be deploying athenaCollector®, the Company’s cloud-based physician medical billing and practice management service, to more than 230 medical providers in its growing New Jersey health network.
“We knew that our vision of being on the leading edge of healthcare delivery would require us to leverage the latest in web-based practice management technologies to help our providers stay current with new codes, reimbursement protocols, reform mandates, and incentives,” said Robert Booth, Chief of Finance for SMG. “athenahealth’s model flips the traditional medical billing office work-flow on its head. Using athenaCollector, more resources are deployed at the front end of the revenue cycle to assemble a clean claim. This allows us to free-up resources at the back end, achieve higher revenue realization rates, reduce days in accounts receivable, and gives us more time to focus on the business of healthcare.”
As part of its athenaCollector service, athenahealth offers a patented knowledge-base of payer reimbursement process rules, the athenaNet rules engine, which is designed to enforce medical office workflow requirements and is updated continuously by athenahealth staff. athenahealth’s rules engine acts as a proactive utility that guides clinic staff away from making billing mistakes that impact operational performance and the overall patient experience.
Karen Graham, SMG’s Chief of Operations commented, “We are confident athenahealth can help our growing network of providers navigate the increasingly complex healthcare landscape, achieve better financial outcomes, support and help scale our growth, and advance our coordination of care strategy.”
“Summit Medical Group is exactly the type of innovative delivery model where the inherently flexible attributes of athenaCollector can have a material impact and yield tremendous value, particularly as the administration of care becomes more complex,” said Jonathan Bush, Chairman and CEO of athenahealth. “With athenahealth delivering its service in the cloud—as opposed to static software that lives on isolated servers—we are able to glean more knowledge from our national network of users to keep up-to-date and compliant with changing regulations and reimbursement protocols. This alleviates the strain on physician offices and is vital in a healthcare landscape that is so opaque and complex, allowing doctors to focus on patients.”
About Summit Medical Group
Providing exceptional primary and specialty care since 1929, Summit Medical Group has pioneered information technology advances with its electronic health records and electronic prescribing program. With more than 170 highly qualified physicians, it serves as a unique model of healthcare in the state. Summit Medical Group is a member of the American Medical Group Association.
With a nationally recognized award-winning customer service program, Summit Medical Group treats more than 55,000 patients per month at its Berkeley Heights campus and area satellites in Bayonne, Berkeley Heights, Millburn, Shorts Hills, Summit, Warren, and Westfield. NJBiz magazine named Summit Medical Group one of the Fifty Fastest Growing Companies in New Jersey.
About athenahealth
athenahealth, Inc. is a leading provider of web-based business services for medical groups. 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 benefits of and prospective markets for athenahealth’s service 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.