athenahealth Launches Enhanced E-Prescribing Capability Across its National Physician Network to Drive Increased Revenue for Medical Groups

Additional Surescripts certification and New athenaClinicalsSM Services Enable
Physicians to More Easily Participate in HITECH Act and Medicare e-Prescribing
Incentive Program
CHICAGO--(Business Wire)--
athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHN), a leading provider of internet-based business
services to physician practices, today announced at the Annual Healthcare
Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference in Chicago, that
the electronic prescribing, or "e-prescribing," service component of
athenahealth`s centrally-hosted electronic health record (EHR),
athenaClinicalsSM, has received additional Surescripts® certification for
Prescription Benefit and Prescription History information (from payers) and
Prescription Routing of new prescriptions to mail order pharmacies. Surescripts
operates the country's largest national electronic prescribing network.

The recently passed HITECH Act will require "meaningful use" of an EHR including
more robust e-prescribing and electronic data exchange. More of Surescripts
network functionality is now seamlessly tied to athenaClinicals existing
e-prescribing features allowing for exchange of prescription benefit, and
prescription history at the point of care and an expanded choice of pharmacies
for prescription routing in addition to athenaClinicals` ability to route new
prescriptions and manage prescription renewals with retail pharmacies.

athenahealth`s enhanced e-prescribing capability is now fully-integrated across
its entire national physician network, athenaNet, allowing athenaClinicals users
to more easily participate in Medicare`s current e-prescribing incentive
program. Launched in 2009, physicians receive increased reimbursement for using
a certified e-prescribing system to report specific use of e-prescribing
technology.

"With all of our clients sharing the same centrally-hosted practice management
and EHR platform, we feel our enhanced e-prescribing capability will allow our
athenaClinicals clients to more easily access a patient`s prescription history,
and their prescription benefit, allowing them to prescribe medications that are
on formulary, thereby reducing the cost to the patient and number of
authorizations the medical provider has to sign for off formulary," said Susan
Harmon, Director of Clinical Product Management for athenahealth. "Aside from
improving patient care and office workflow, these new e-prescribing capabilities
will also drive additional revenue opportunities for our clients with the
current Medicare e-prescribing incentive programs and ensuing HITECH Act."

As part of its Surescripts certification, athenaClinicals users will experience
a reduction in the work associated with traditional e-prescribing systems due to
new advanced reporting services specifically designed to allow for easier
clinical reporting associated with Medicare`s incentive program as well as other
state and commercial payer e-prescribing initiatives. athenahealth`s
athenaClinicals Document Services Team expects to process fewer prescription
authorization documents because of alternative medication choices, or
authorizations completed at the point of care. Even if an authorization is
generated by the pharmacy, athenahealth`s document service capability makes the
approval workflow seamless by queuing up the document to the provider for fast
and easy sign off.

For additional information on specifics around the HITECH Act and athenahealth`s
EHR and e-prescribing service offering please visit:
www.athenahealth.com/HITECHAct

About Surescripts

Surescripts is the result of a 2008 merger between the country`s two leading
health information networks: RxHub and SureScripts. Surescripts gives healthcare
providers secure, electronic access to prescription information that can save
their patients` lives, improve efficiency and reduce the cost of healthcare for
all. Available during emergencies or routine care, the Surescripts network is
used every day by thousands of physicians, physician assistants, nurse
practitioners and other prescribers across all 50 states. The Surescripts
network connects these prescribers to all of the nation`s major chain
pharmacies, the nation`s leading payers and independent pharmacies nationwide.
For more information, go to www.surescripts.com.

About athenahealth

athenahealth is a leading provider of internet-based business services for
physician practices. The Company`s service offerings are based on proprietary
web-native practice management electronic health record (EHR) software, a
continuously updated payer knowledge-base and integrated back-office service
operations. For more information visit www.athenahealth.com or call (888)
652-8200.

This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant
to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995, including statements regarding the anticipated benefits of athenahealth's
service offerings. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are
subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our
control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those
contemplated in these forward-looking statements. In particular, the risks and
uncertainties include, among other things: the risk that our service offerings
will not operate in the manner that we expect due to design flaws, security
breaches, or otherwise; potential interruptions or delays in our internet-based
services offerings; our reliance upon third parties, such as computer hardware,
software, data-hosting, and internet infrastructure providers, which reliance
may result in failures or disruptions in our service offerings; errors or
omissions included in our payer and clinical intelligence rules engine and
database; and the evolving and complex government regulatory compliance
environment in which we and our clients operate. Existing and prospective
investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking
statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. athenahealth, Inc.
undertakes no obligation to update or revise the information contained in this
press release, whether as a result of new information, future events, or
circumstances or otherwise. For additional disclosure regarding these and other
risks faced by athenahealth, Inc., see the disclosure contained in our public
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, available on the Investors
section of our website at http://www.athenahealth.com and on the SEC's website
at http://www.sec.gov.

Surescripts
Rob Cronin, 917-414-5289
rob.cronin@surescripts.com
or
athenahealth, Inc.
John Hallock (Media), 617-504-0958
Director, Corporate Communications
media@athenahealth.com
or
athenahealth, Inc.
Jennifer Heizer (Investors), 617-402-1322
Senior Manager, Investor Relations
investorrelations@athenahealth.com

Copyright Business Wire 2009