athenahealth, Inc. is a publicly traded American company that provides physician practices with online practice management and electronic medical record services, combined with medical billing and other healthcare business services. The company was founded in 1997 in San Diego, California, and today is headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts, with operational sites in Belfast, Maine; Rome,Georgia; Alpharetta, Georgia; and Chennai, India.
 

History

In 1997, athenahealth cofounders Jonathan Bush and Todd Park started a women's health and birthing practice in San Diego, California, called Athena Healthcare. Unprepared for how difficult it would be to get reimbursed by insurance companies, they soon faced serious cash flow problems. After searching unsuccessfully for an existing EMR and practice management solution to meet their needs, they decided to form athenahealth, Inc. in order to create their own product. Enlisting the help of Todd's brother, software developer Ed Park, they began to develop an EMR and financial revenue cycle system with a "rules engine" of dynamic billing rules data.
 

In 2000, athenahealth introduced athenaCollector, their physician billing and practice management service. In 2006, it launched athenaClinicals, touted as the "first economically sustainable, service-based" electronic medical records (EMR) system.[4] And in August 2008, it announced the acquisition of MedicalMessaging.net.
 

athenahealth also entered the area of healthcare reform in 2006, working with Physician's Practice Journal to provide an industry report card for the major insurance companies in the United States.[6]The annual PayerView reports cull billing statistics from athenahealth's rules engine to deliver performance analysis and insurance company rankings based on payment times, denial rates, transparency, and other metrics.
 

After years of rapid growth, athenahealth, Inc. announced an initial public offering of its common stock on June 22, 2007. The offering was completed on September 20, 2007, at an offering price of $18 per share. It now trades on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol ATHN.
 

Products

• athenaCollector

Physician billing and practice management service combining award-winning software, proprietary claims knowledge, and business services.
 

• athenaClinicals

Integrated electronic medical records (EMR) service, combining software with clinical and payer intelligence.
 

• athenaCommunicator

Automated calling and emailing platform and customizable patient portal system.
 

• athenaCoordinator

Cloud-based care coordination service for order transmission, insurance pre-certification and patient registration among physicians and hospitals, surgical centers and imaging centers.
 

Key people

The executive management team at athenahealth includes:

• Jonathan Bush, Chairman and CEO

• Timothy M. Adams, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

• Daniel H. Orenstein, Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary

• Ed Park, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

• Derek Hedges, Senior Vice President, Business Development and Government Relations

• Leslie Brunner, Senior Vice President of People and Process

• Rob Cosinuke, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer

• Stephen N. Kahane, M.D., M.S., President of the Enterprise Services Group

• Jeremy Delinsky, Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer

• Todd Rothenhaus, M.D., Vice President, Chief Medical Officer