PORTLAND, Ore. and WATERTOWN, Mass., May 14, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- athenahealth, Inc., a leading provider of web-based services, knowledge, and software for medical practices, and the Oregon Medical Association (OMA), the state's largest medical association, today announced that they have aligned to offer athenahealth's web-based practice management services to over 7,400 OMA physician members. Under the terms of the agreement, the OMA members will receive a discount on athenahealth's services.
"Physicians are busy and don't have time to follow up on every unpaid claim like they might want. We believe the services athenahealth provides will better enable our physicians to make their practices more efficient and effective," said Klaus Martin, MD, president of the Oregon Medical Association. "What sold us on athenahealth was its customer service record, client focused approach and their payer rules engine. We are also enthusiastic about the possibilities of athenahealth's payer-performance data assisting in our physician advocacy efforts at the Legislature and with third-party payers."
"Physicians across Oregon can now benefit from a national network of thousands of physicians that will allow them to streamline their practices' clinical and operational workflow," said Derek Hedges, vice president of business development at athenahealth. "athenahealth is proud to align ourselves with an organization like the OMA that has been a leading state and national force in advocating for physicians as they confront new market pressures."
New trends in the marketplace, such as pay-for-performance programs and consumer-directed health care, are factors that are requiring doctors to look to new business and clinical services rather than standalone software that allow them to maximize quality-of-care and operational efficiency.
"During our search for a new clinical and practice management solution, we wanted to avoid traditional software-only solutions based on our past experience of spending tremendous amounts of time and money for systems that don't always deliver consistent results," said Paula Kubitz, practice manager for Mt. Scott ENT and Audiology, based in Portland, Oregon. "Having spent over 25 years managing medical groups, I have never been happier with a practice management solution than I am with athenahealth's. We are excited the OMA has endorsed athenahealth as medical practices need service-based solutions that deliver consistent clinical and administrative results. As more practices adopt athenahealth in Oregon, I believe we'll all benefit as athenahealth's payer rules engine will grow and we will all share in the collective knowledge."
On May 24th, the OMA and athenahealth will present an educational seminar at OMA headquarters to discuss the athenahealth service offerings. For more event information contact Jenn Webster at the OMA, 503-619-8000.
About Oregon Medical Association
The Oregon Medical Association (OMA), representing 7,400 physicians in the state of Oregon, has been serving and supporting physicians in their efforts to improve the health of Oregonians since 1874. For more information, visit www.theOMA.org.
About athenahealth
athenahealth provides a physician revenue and clinical cycle management offering that integrates Web-based practice management and electronic medical record (EMR) software, continually updated payer knowledge, and back-office processing specialists into a single service. The results are faster payment at lower cost, improved patient care, higher revenue retention and less hassle for the thousands of physicians using athenahealth nationwide. The company currently collects over $2 billion on behalf of its clients on an annualized basis. athenahealth is dedicated to helping providers make optimum use of their time, ultimately improving the quality of service delivered and the financial reward for it. For more information, visit www.athenahealth.com or call (888) 652-8200.