WATERTOWN, MA – athenahealth, Inc., a provider of Web-based business services to physician practices, has launched a new program designed to incentivize the use of its EHR system through the federal stimulus plan.

The Watertown, Mass.-based company is guaranteeing that users of the athenaClinicals EHR will receive a HITECH Act bonus payment under the 2011 program year.

“While traditional software vendors make promises that their functionality will ‘evolve’ to ‘meet standards for meaningful use,’ the rapid pace of change in healthcare means that physicians can’t afford to wait and are expecting a lot more,” said Jonathan Bush, athenahealth’s chairman and CEO.

“As a result, athenahealth is making a no-excuses guarantee of HITECH Act bonus money with our service-based EHR for two core reasons," he said. "First, we are uniquely positioned to do so given our Web-based, shared risk service model, and second, the reform environment has driven physicians to look beyond licensed software for partners who take an active interest in improving their financial and clinical outcomes in an ongoing manner."

The HITECH Act, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, was signed into law in early 2009 and designates close to $33 billion to healthcare IT. The act offers as much as $44,000 to providers starting in 2011 who can demonstrate “meaningful use” of an EHR.

“Health reform is happening at a revolutionary speed, and licensed software, whether it’s hosted or client server-based, is moving at an evolutionary pace,” said Bush.

To support HITECH payments, athenahealth has created a clinical intelligence team, which will provide IT support for athenaCollector and athenaClinical solutions, including continual updates and compliance checks with regard to HITECH requirements.

“To qualify for the HITECH stimulus dollars, medical practices will have to find and build new ways of monitoring all of the program’s various eligibility requirements, change and map clinical workflows against those, and then make sure they are practicing and reporting properly to comply over time,” said Bo Kopynec, MD, a family physician with FirstHealth of the Carolinas and an athenahealth client. “Software vendors do not assume risk in helping their clients successfully participate and collect payment. Guaranteeing that their software will work or offering loans is simply not going far enough.”

“The overarching benefit of our unique software-enabled service model is that we take on the work of getting physicians enrolled and qualified for new programs like the HITECH Act, and at no additional charge, we update our national network daily with new rules and requirements for physicians, whether from the government or commercial payers,” said Bush. “This virtual back-office service means that providers avoid the distraction and cost of maintaining and updating traditional software, the failure of which has prompted the need for the HITECH Act itself.”