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| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Nasdaq: ATHN | |
| Industry | Healthcare Technology |
| Founded | 1997; 29 years ago (1997) (as Athena Women's Health) |
| Founders | |
| Headquarters | Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Key people | Bob Segert (chairman &CEO)[1] |
| Products | athenaCollector (revenue cycle management,medical billing), athenaClinicals (electronic health records), athenaCommunicator (patient engagement, care coordination),Epocrates, and athenahealth Population Health (population health management) |
| Owners | |
Number of employees | 6,000+ (February 2019) |
| Website | athenahealth |
Athenahealth, Inc. is a privately held American company that provides cloud-based SaaS healthcare technology and network-enabled services andpoint-of-caremobile apps forhealthcare in theUnited States. Its primary product is athenaOne, an all-in-one software platform that combines electronic health record (EHR), practice management, medical billing, claims denials, prior authorization and revenue cycle management, as well as patient engagement tools for ambulatory practices.
The company was founded in 1997 inSan Diego and is now headquartered inBoston, Massachusetts. They have operational sites inBelfast, Maine;Atlanta, Georgia;Austin, Texas; andBurlington, Vermont, with international operations inChennai,Bangalore, andPune,India.[2]
On February 15, 2022, the company was acquired byBain Capital andHellman & Friedman for $17 billion.[3][4]
The company was founded byJonathan Bush andTodd Park in 1997 as Athena Women's Health, a women's health and birthing center in San Diego, California.[5]
At the birthing center, only 10% of babies were delivered byC-section, one-third of the national average, and 90% of mothers could breastfeed their newborns, beating the national average of 67%.[5]
In 1998, venture funder Mark Wilson offered to buy Athenahealth's software for $11 million.[5] Bush and Park turned down the offer and transitioned the business model from birthing centers to internet-based healthcare. They rebranded Athena Women's Health to Athenahealth, Inc., pulling in Ed Park, Todd Park's younger brother, an engineer, to develop a practice management system.[6]
In 2000, Athenahealth's first client, Anchor Medical Associates, went live on athenaCollector, and, in February, its first electronic claim was submitted. While its first office opened its doors inWaltham, Massachusetts in 2002, Athenahealth moved to Watertown, Massachusetts in 2005, and then the Brighton neighborhood of Boston in 2023.[7]
Athenahealth announced aninitial public offering of its common stock on June 22, 2007.[8] The offering was completed on September 20, 2007, at a price of $18 per share. It traded on theNASDAQ exchange under the symbol ATHN until it was taken private in 2019.[citation needed]
Since moving its headquarters to Watertown in 2005, Athenahealth has created campuses in Chennai, India, in 2005; Belfast, Maine, in 2008; Princeton, New Jersey, in 2013; Atlanta, Georgia, and San Francisco, California, in 2014; Austin, Texas, in 2015; and Bangalore and Pune, India, in 2017.[citation needed]
In January 2015, Athenahealth announced the acquisition of RazorInsights, a "leader in cloud-based EHR and financial solutions" for rural,critical access, andcommunity hospitals. The purchase extended Athenahealth's established position in the outpatient market into the 50-bed and underinpatient care environment, which makes up nearly one third of the hospital market.[9]
In February 2015, Athenahealth announced that it had purchased webOMR, a web-based clinical applications and EHR platform developed by Boston'sBeth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Athenahealth collaborated with BIDMC on the development of Athenahealth's acute care service offering, using Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Needham, a 58-bed community hospital, as the alpha development site.[10]
On February 7, 2018, former CEO ofGeneral Electric,Jeffrey Immelt became the chairman of the board.[11] On June 6, 2018, Immelt was named executive chairman.[12]
Athenahealth announced its acquisition of Praxify Technologies in June 2017.[13]
From 2017 to 2018, under pressure from investorElliott Management, Athenahealth undertook substantial cost-cutting measures, and Bush resigned.[14]
In November 2018, Athenahealth was bought by Elliott andVeritas Capital for $5.7 billion, and then merged with an organisation thatVeritas Capital had acquired from GE Healthcare in April 2018.[15]
In late 2018, Athenahealth's private equity firm announced it was combining Virence Health into Athenahealth.[16] Virence was the former Clinical Business Solutions division of GE Healthcare which combined some assets from the former IDX Systems with its prior acquisitions of MedicaLogic and Millbrook.[17]
On January 28, 2021, theUnited States Department of Justice reported that Athenahealth violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by paying illegal kickbacks to generate sales of its EHR product, athenaClinicals.
On February 15, 2022, the company was acquired byBain Capital andHellman & Friedman for $17 billion.[3][4]
On January 28, 2021, theUnited States Department of Justice reported that Athenahealth has agreed to pay $18.25 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by paying illegal kickbacks to generate sales of its EHR product, athenaClinicals.
athenaOne is Athenahealth's fully integrated suite ofcloud-based healthcare technology software and services, combining practice management (athenaCollector), anelectronic health record (EHR) system (athenaClinicals), and care coordination (athenaCommunicator) into a single packaged offering.[citation needed]
Athenahealth's first product, athenaCollector, a cloud-based revenue cycle and practice management service, was launched in 2000.[18] Built by Ed Park, the revenue cycle management system formed the foundation of athenaNet, Athenahealth's web-based system at large. (Ed Park would go on to become Athenahealth's Chief Operating Officer and member of its board.)[19]
In 2006, the company launched athenaClinicals, reported as the "first economically sustainable, service-based" electronic medical records (EMR) system.[20][21][non-primary source needed] athenaClinicals has been ranked as leading the market in EHR usability, due to its productivity and ability to reduce providers’ work, effectiveness of delivering patient care, and intuitive user interface.[22]
In 2008, Athenahealth introduced athenaCommunicator to manage phone calls.[23] Since then, the product has evolved into a suite of "patient engagement services," including apatient portal, patient self-scheduling solution, and live operator service to better help patients to schedule appointments, reschedule appointments, and make payments.[24][non-primary source needed]
In 2013, the company purchased theEpocrates mobile brand and continued to occupy Epocrates offices in Princeton, New Jersey, and San Francisco, California. Epocrates aggregates treatment information, including dosing andcontraindications, to provide clinical decision support in the prescribing moments of care.[25][26]
Epocrates drug monographs have also been embedded into the athenaClinicals EHR system to enhance productivity and reduce time not spent on patients.[27]
