WATERTOWN, Mass., March 31, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- athenahealth, Inc.(Nasdaq:ATHN), a leading provider of cloud-based services for electronic health record (EHR), practice management, and care coordination, today issued the following statement in reaction to the House vote, and pending vote from the Senate, to patch the Sustainable Growth Rate ("SGR" or "Doc Fix") and delay ICD-10 for another year to October 2015.
Ed Park, executive vice president and chief operating officer, athenahealth, provided the following comment:
"It is unfortunate that the government has once again chosen to delay ICD-10. athenahealth and its clients are/were prepared for the ICD-10 transition, and in fact we have national payer data showing that 78 percent of payers are currently proving readiness in line with the 2014 deadline. The moving goal line is a significant distraction to providers and inappropriately invokes massive additional investments of time and money for all. The issue is even more serious when considered in association with another short-term SGR fix and 2013's Meaningful Use Stage 2 delay. It is alarmingly clear that health care is operating in an environment where there is no penalty for not being able to keep pace with necessary steps and deadlines to move health care forward. Our system is already woefully behind in embracing technology to drive information quality, data exchange, and efficiency, and delays like this only hinder us further."
About athenahealth, Inc.
athenahealth is a leading provider of cloud-based services for electronic health record (EHR), practice management, and care coordination. athenahealth's mission is to be caregivers' most trusted service, helping them do well doing the right thing. For more information, please visit www.athenahealth.com.