WATERTOWN, Mass. & QUEENSBURY, N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHN), a leading provider of internet-based business services to physician practices, today announced that Hudson Headwaters Health Network, a not-for-profit, community-based network of health centers and health programs serving the Lake George/Adirondack and Glens Falls Region of New York, has expanded its current relationship with athenahealth and is now live with athenahealth’s electronic health record (EHR) service, athenaClinicalsSM.
Hudson Headwaters’ 100 medical providers will use athenaClincals to qualify for the Patient-Centered Medical HomeTM national program as their organization aims to improve patient care and outcomes across its growing network of community health centers. Last year, Hudson Headwaters’ twelve health centers began using athenahealth’s revenue cycle management service, athenaCollectorSM, to help drive improved operations. The health network covers 3,700 square miles in four different counties providing care through 280,000 patient visits annually.
“Transforming our patient records from paper to electronic files is a big step towards improving quality of care and efficiency,” said John Rugge, M.D., CEO of Hudson Headwaters. “It also vastly improves our ability to track patient outcomes, a key part of the Adirondack Region Medical Home Pilot, a new model for care that emphasizes the role of primary care in keeping people healthy and holding down costs.”
Under the Pilot, which is commencing this year, participating primary health care providers will receive enhanced insurance reimbursements in exchange for more responsibility, increased care coordination, and achieving national standards for medical homes. “Primary care practices that participate in the Pilot will eventually need to show with measurable data that comprehensive primary care is effective at improving outcomes and containing costs. For us, this would not be possible without athenaClinicals,” continued Rugge. “We are extremely pleased to be extending our relationship with athenahealth to enable the entire Adirondack region to protect and build on existing community health services.”
athenaClinicals is fully integrated with athenahealth’s revenue cycle management service, athenaCollector. Combined, these software-enabled services (SeS) include continually updated payer-specific billing rules, advanced e-prescribing capabilities, back-office processing specialists, and an evaluation and management coding support tool to help providers obtain appropriate reimbursement for practice-specific pay-for-performance payer contracts. All areas of the practices are able to share clinical and billing history information for patients and monitor performance based on best practice metrics that are automatically tracked and reported.
“Hudson Headwaters Health Network, a Federally Qualified Health Center, has been recognized by federal authorities and state agencies for their leadership in rural health care and for pioneering new approaches to regional health planning and delivery,” said Jonathan Bush, athenahealth’s Chairman and CEO. “Part of their continued foresight is their use of a network-based clinical service like athenaClinicals that will allow them to connect all of their dispersed clinic locations and drive quality-of-care best practices for patients across upstate New York. athenahealth is honored to help in their efforts.”
