Athenahealth posts another strong quarter

August 5, 2009 by MassDevice staff

A 42 percent increase in sales, 60 percent gross margins and increased profits — ho-hum, just another quarter for the Watertown, Mass.-based maker of web-based electronic health care records.

Athenahealth Inc. continues to position itself as a leader in the nationwide push to convert physicians to digital medical records, as the company reported a 42 percent increase in sales and healthy profits during the second quarter.

The Watertown, Mass.-based provider of web-based healthcare software reported a $3 million second-quarter profit on about $47 million in sales, compared to the $2.8 million profit the company reported on $33 million in sales during the same period last year.

For the six-months ended June 30, Athenahealth reported an $8.8 million profit on $84 million in sales, compared to $4.6 million on $59 million in sales during the first six months of 2008.

The company also boosted enrollment by physicians using Athenahealth's suite of EHR products. Athenahealth said about 13,600 physicians and more than 20,000 medical providers use the company's athenaCollector, a web-based physician billing tool.

The company is actively promoting its ability to help physicians comply with the HITECH provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

HITECH provides cash incentives of up to $63,500 to Medicaid healthcare providers that can demonstrate "meaningful use" of electronic healthcare records.

Athenahealth is aggressively seeking partnerships to help physicians take advantage of this provision, as evidenced by the devotion of an entire section of its website to the issue.