CalHIPSO Selects athenahealth as an EHR Vendor Partner.

California Regional Extension Center recommends athenahealth 's cloud-based services for improved practice management and better patient care

WATERTOWN, Mass. and OAKLAND, Calif. -- athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHN), a leading provider of cloud-based practice management, electronic health record (EHR), and patient communication services to medical groups, today announced that The California Health Information Partnership & Services Organization (CalHIPSO), the largest federally designated Regional Extension Center serving California, with the exception of Los Angeles and Orange Counties, has selected athenahealth as one of its EHR vendor partners.

As a result of this relationship, more than 6,000 providers across the State of California will have the opportunity to access CalHIPSO's group purchasing discount and contract terms and conditions to implement athenahealth's cloud-based EHR services. By doing so, physicians will lay the necessary groundwork to benefit from the HITECH Act, which is part of the larger American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

CalHIPSO is one of 62 Regional Extension Centers around the country designated to offer health care providers a local resource for technical assistance, guidance, and information on best practices to support and accelerate health care provider efforts to become meaningful users of EHR.

"We are very pleased to enter into a partnership with athenahealth on behalf of CalHIPSO members," said Speranza Avram, Executive Director, CalHIPSO. "We look forward to working together with athenahealth to bring the benefits of leading edge EHR products together with robust Regional Extension Center services for the benefit of providers throughout the state."

Jonathan Bush, Chairman and CEO of athenahealth, said, "Many California physicians find themselves in the exact same situation as physicians all across this country, trying to adapt to a world where electronic health records are becoming a necessity--but this change isn't easy. The good news for California doctors is they've got a great organization in CalHIPSO to turn to for support, and we look forward to bringing our deep understanding of the benefits cloud-based EHR services can bring to a host of new physicians and helping them receive financial reimbursements for embracing the future of healthcare."

athenahealth has 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 California, to meet EHR certification requirements for achieving "Meaningful Use" and to 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. Last July, athenahealth also announced that Version 10.6 of its EHR, athenaClinicals[R], had been inspected by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT[R]) and is certified EHR technology, Interim Final Rule (IFR) Stage 1, preliminarily meeting all requirements for Eligible Providers published by HHS in the 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.

About CalHIPSO

The California Health Information Partnership & Services Organization (CalHIPSO) is a Regional Extension Center serving California. CalHIPSO works with over 6,100 clinical providers around California to help them successfully adopt Electronic Health Records (EHRs) using $33 million in funding provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. CalHIPSO is waiving membership fees for Priority Primary Care Providers who enroll prior to June 30th, 2011. For more information on CalHIPSO and information on how to enroll, visit www.calhipso.org.

For additional information about the Health Information Technology Regional Extension Centers, see http://HealthIT.hhs.gov/programs/REC/.

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 .