AURORA, Ill. and WATERTOWN, Mass., Sept. 12, 2007 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- athenahealth, Inc., a provider of internet-based business services to physician practices, today announced that Rush-Copley Medical Group, which is part of Rush-Copley Medical Center, a 183-bed hospital with over 1,500 employees and 500 physicians on staff, has selected athenahealth's practice management service, athenaCollector(sm), for its physician organization. Rush-Copley will also be using Eclipsys Corporation's(r) (Nasdaq:ECLP) Sunrise Ambulatory Care(tm) offering as part of a new integrated clinical and financial ambulatory care solution.

"As one of the leading medical organizations in Illinois, we felt we needed to bring our physicians industry-leading financial and clinical IT solutions that will empower them to optimize the care they deliver and maximize our enterprise's operational workflow," said Marcee Brummel, Executive Director of Rush-Copley Medical Group. "athenahealth has built an intuitive, national practice management network that will make interoperability and connectivity across our physician organization a reality. Our decision to leverage the athenahealth and Eclipsys joint offering was based on our desire to not just provide software to our physicians, but services that deliver consistent and measurable outcomes."

"We are honored Rush-Copley has selected the athenahealth and Eclipsys joint offering as the backbone for executing their ambulatory strategy," said Jonathan Bush, Chairman and CEO of athenahealth. "Rush-Copley Medical Group fundamentally understands the growing demand for health care enterprises to streamline administrative and clinical outcomes. They also understand that this can only be accomplished by using flexible business services that allow them to manage and bring process integrity to the tremendous volume of clinical and administrative patient data generated in the act of delivering care."

athenaCollector is a physician revenue cycle management offering that integrates web-based practice management software, continually updated payer knowledge, and back-office processing specialists into a single service. athenahealth's proprietary payer and clinical rules engine, athenaRules(sm), is a real-time database of payer rules and regulations with new rules being continuously added, the claims engine helps catch and correct billing errors before they are submitted in claims and lead to denials. The results can include increased collections, faster reimbursement cycles, and reduced administrative headaches for physician practices.

"Rush-Copley Medical Group is a long-time Eclipsys client using Sunrise Clinical Manager to help improve patient-care outcomes in its high-acuity care environments," said R. Andrew Eckert, Eclipsys President and CEO. "As Rush-Copley extends the patient record out into the community using Sunrise Ambulatory Care, it has been great to see the organization realizing the value in adding athenahealth's practice management and billing services. Eclipsys and athenahealth's combined solution uniquely helps healthcare organizations better manage and coordinate care delivery with affiliated physicians and this new contract reflects the growing market demand for our offering."

As part of the joint offering, Eclipsys has combined its Sunrise Ambulatory Care clinical offering with athenahealth practice management and billing service to create an industry-unique enterprise connectivity solution that integrates patients' clinical records between the outpatient care center and the rest of the enterprise. With athenahealth's web-native, centrally-hosted practice management and EMR platform, athenaNet(r), Rush-Copley physicians will have the ability to leverage Eclipsys' clinical solution to share patient data with other facilities while maintaining privacy around their practice's financial information.

About Rush-Copley Medical Group

Rush-Copley Medical Group is a multi-specialty physician network affiliated with Rush-Copley Medical Center in Aurora. With over 20 office locations in Aurora and Yorkville we offer expertise in the following specialties: cardiovascular and thoracic surgery, endocrinology, family medicine, infertility/reproductive health, internal medicine, midwifery, neurosurgery, obstetrics/gynecology, oncology, otolaryngology, pediatrics, and physical therapy/sports medicine.

About athenahealth, Inc.

athenahealth, Inc., is a provider of internet-based business services for physician practices. The Company's service offerings are based on proprietary web-native practice management electronic medical record (EMR) software, a continuously updated payer knowledge-base and integrated back-office service operations. For more information visit www.athenahealth.com.

About Eclipsys

Eclipsys is a leading provider of advanced integrated clinical, revenue cycle and access management software, clinical content and professional services that help healthcare organizations improve clinical, financial, operational and client satisfaction outcomes. For more information, see www.eclipsys.com or email info@eclipsys.com.

Statements in this news release concerning the scope of the agreement and the benefits provided by Eclipsys software alone, and in combination with the athenahealth, Inc. solutions and services are forward-looking statements and actual results may differ from those projected due to a variety of risks and uncertainties. Implementation and customization of Eclipsys software is complex and time-consuming. Results depend upon a variety of factors and can vary by client. Each client's circumstances are unique and may include unforeseen issues that make it more difficult than anticipated to implement or derive benefit from software, implementation, consulting, or other services. The success and timeliness of the company's services will depend at least in part upon client involvement, which can be difficult to control. The contract between Eclipsys and athenahealth, Inc. can be terminated or its scope reduced under certain circumstances. More information about company risks is available in recent Form 10-K and other filings made by Eclipsys from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Special attention is directed to the portions of those documents entitled "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations." Eclipsys Corporation and The Outcomes Company are registered trademarks of Eclipsys Corporation. Sunrise Clinical Manager and Sunrise Ambulatory Care are trademarks of Eclipsys Corporation. Other product and company names in this news release are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

CONTACT:  Rush-Copley Medical Group
          Courtney Satlak, Public Relations Coordinator
          (630) 978-4912
          csatlak@rsh.net

          athenahealth, Inc.
          John Hallock, Manager, Public Affairs and
           Corporate Communications
          (617) 402-1428
          media@athenahealth.com

          Eclipsys
          Jason Cigarran, Director, Media Relations
            (561) 322-4355 
            jason.cigarran@eclipsys.com
          Investors:
          Robert J. Colletti, Chief Financial Officer
            (561) 322-4655 
            investor.relations@eclipsys.com