WATERTOWN, Mass., June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- athenahealth, Inc., a leading provider of network-enabled software and services for medical groups and health systems nationwide, today unveiled athenaTelehealth, a new embedded offering that empowers healthcare providers to seamlessly conduct telemedicine visits with their patients. The embedded functionality – available at no additional cost to athenaOne customers until September 30, 2020 – enables practitioners to easily conduct telehealth visits that comply with HIPAA and move efficiently through workflows, from scheduling to patient messaging, video conferencing, simultaneous encounter documentation, and billing.

As stay-at-home orders and fear of exposure to coronavirus took root, government deregulation and high patient demand led to a surge in telehealth appointments.  The athenahealth network saw a 3400% overall increase in daily telehealth visits from mid-February to late April. Applying its adaptable technology and cloud-based architecture, athenahealth quickly developed athenaTelehealth to allow its customers to meaningfully engage patients and deliver needed care with telemedicine visits. The solution enables video conferencing within athenaOne, allowing providers to examine patients while updating their chart in real time and empowering them to increase visit volumes and financial performance.

“I have been using athenaTelehealth exclusively in my family medicine practice for several weeks now,” said Dr. Dillon Miller, MD, Quorum Health. “With the telemedicine interface built into the athenaOne EHR, it has simplified the experience for my patients and myself. Even my less tech savvy patients have been able to successfully utilize the system and report less confusion with the setup compared to other telehealth options. My patients and my staff understand telehealth is the future of patient care, and I am glad to see athenahealth has given us a product to facilitate this new standard of care.”

athenaTelehealth enables providers to complete a full telehealth visit within the clinical encounter without disruption to their normal workflow or focus on the patient, and they can also move between appointments quickly and efficiently. Scheduling a telehealth visit drives all downstream workflows automatically, and integration with athenahealth’s revenue cycle services allows for a seamless billing process.

"The ability to provide our patients with a telehealth platform that enables HIPAA compliance while in the encounter fully transformed our telemedicine service," commented Western Medical Associates’ Deb Twardowski, ANP-BC. "Western Medical Associates has been an athenahealth client for 14 years, and we were overwhelmingly impressed with the company's rapid development of a telehealth solution to care for our patients during the pandemic."

For patients, athenaTelehealth provides a simple, flexible experience that allows their clinician to provide personal and meaningful care virtually. Users can simply access their telehealth consultations from any computer or mobile device with a modern web browser and integrated camera – no additional software or integration required – and up to four individuals can join an athenaTelehealth visit so that care team and family members or caretakers can also participate. The solution leverages existing patient communication channels, including email and text message based on patient preferences, and delivers telehealth instructions and a seamless patient experience.

“The COVID-19 global pandemic has upended the U.S. healthcare industry and is transforming delivery of patient care. To remain solvent and provide essential care many providers have turned to telehealth, and athenahealth has been there for them,” said Paul Brient, Chief Product Officer for athenahealth. “Our swift development of athenaTelehealth demonstrates how quickly we can respond to sudden market changes and shifts in customer needs. By leveraging our world-class development team and nimble, cloud-based platform, we were able to take athenaTelehealth from proof of concept to the hands of customers in just a few weeks.”

As part of the company’s Expanded Beta program, athenaTelehealth functionality will be enabled for all opted-in athenaOne customers and can also be set up on a department-by-department basis. athenahealth will introduce a Generally Available (GA) version of athenaTelehealth in the fourth quarter of 2020, which will be available to all healthcare providers using athenaOne and it will offer additional functionality, usability upgrades, and more workflow options, including an extension to the athenaOne Mobile app. To learn more about athenaTelehealth or to view the demonstration video, please visit: https://www.athenahealth.com/solutions/telehealth-services.

For more on athenahealth’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit https://www.athenahealth.com/knowledge-hub/covid.

About athenahealth, Inc.
athenahealth partners with medical organizations across the country to drive clinical and financial results. Our vision is to create a thriving ecosystem that delivers accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all, and we are pursuing this through our medical record, revenue cycle, patient engagement, and care coordination service offerings. Our expert teams build modern technology on an open, connected ecosystem, yielding insights that make a difference for our customers and their patients. For more information, please visit www.athenahealth.com.

Contact:
Jean Borgman
media@athenahealth.com
617-402-1031 

A video accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/091a0722-3ad0-496b-9b67-a2ef5a25eb0c