athenahealth Selected as a Preferred EHR Vendor for the Massachusetts Regional Extension Center

athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHN), a leading provider of web-based practice management, electronic health record (EHR), and patient communication services to medical groups, today announced that the Massachusetts e-Health Institute (MeHI) has selected athenahealth as a preferred EHR solution partner. This partnership will enable MeHI physicians across the state to take advantage of the benefits that athenahealth’s web-based technology brings as they look to successfully participate in the HITECH Act, which is part of the larger American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (ARRA).

MeHI, a division of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC), is the designated Regional Extension Center (REC) for the state. MeHI was awarded $13.4 million in federal stimulus funding to assist primary care providers in transitioning to EHRs. MeHI’s REC is part of a program that has been granted $598 million to establish 60 centers across the United States intended to provide hospitals, group practices, and community organizations with grants to help improve health care in their respective areas.

“We are pleased to have athenahealth join our select list of certified health IT companies that will help thousands of health care providers across Massachusetts successfully transition to electronic health records,” said Rick Shoup, Ph.D., Director of the Massachusetts e-Health Institute. “Widespread deployment of electronic health records leads to better quality of care for patients, reduces health care costs, and spurs new jobs in the health care industry.”

athenahealth recently extended the deadline for participation in its federal stimulus bonus payment guarantee program that assures its web-based services will help doctors across the nation, including those in Massachusetts, to meet EHR certification requirements for achieving “Meaningful Use” and obtain the 2011 program year incentives offered by the HITECH Act. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) formally announced the final definition of Meaningful Use on July 13, 2010. With this deadline extension, physicians will now have until June 30, 2011, to participate in athenahealth’s 2011 guarantee program. In July, athenahealth also announced that Version 10.6 of its EHR, athenaClinicals^SM, had been inspected by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT®) and is certified EHR technology, IFR Stage 1, preliminarily meeting all requirements for Eligible Providers published by HHS in the Interim Final Rule (IFR). This preliminary IFR Stage 1 certification is related to the HITECH Act. Please visit www.athenahealth.com/bonus to learn more about athenahealth's EHR and the federal stimulus bonus payment guarantee program.

“athenahealth is excited to be selected as a preferred EHR solution provider by the Massachusetts REC and to support their work in helping primary care physicians across Massachusetts adopt new clinical technologies, deliver better patient care, and operate more efficient practices,” said Jonathan Bush, Chairman and CEO of athenahealth. “We are seeing a growing number of federally designated RECs recognize that the inherent flexibility in our web-based EHR makes it uniquely positioned to help physicians in their states meet the current HITECH Act eligibility requirements as well as future requirements of the program that are not yet defined. We look forward to working with the Massachusetts REC to help doctors across our home state with the successful adoption of EHRs.”

About Massachusetts e-Health Institute

The Massachusetts e-Health Institute (MeHI), a division of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, is the state-designated entity for health care innovation, technology and competitiveness. Established by Governor Patrick and the Massachusetts Legislature in Chapter 305 of the Acts of 2008, MeHI is responsible for advancing the dissemination of health information across the Commonwealth, including the deployment of EHR systems in all healthcare provider settings that are networked through a statewide HIE. For more information on MeHI, go to www.maehi.org.

About athenahealth

athenahealth, Inc. is a leading provider of Internet-based business services for physician practices. athenahealth’s service offerings are based on proprietary web-native practice management and electronic health record (EHR) software, a continuously updated payer knowledge-base, integrated back-office service operations, and automated and live patient communication services. For more information, please 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 and potential for meaningful use of athenahealth’s service offerings and the nature of prospective markets for those 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 service 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 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, please 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.