athenahealth Joins With the Iowa Medical Society on Pricing

The Iowa Medical Society (IMS) and athenahealth, Inc., the premier provider of web-based services, knowledge, and software for medical practices, have aligned to offer athenahealth’s on-demand clinical and revenue cycle management services to Iowa physicians. Under the terms of the agreement, IMS will offer athenahealth’s services to member physicians at preferred pricing.

athenahealth has the industry’s only on-demand physician and clinical cycle management offering that integrates web-based practice management software, continually updated payer and clinical knowledge, and back-office processing specialists into a single service. athenahealth’s dynamic "payer rules engine" is the largest real-time database of payer rules and regulations in the industry. With new payer rules being continuously added, the payer rules engine helps catch and correct billing errors before they are submitted in claims and lead to denials. The results can include increased collections, faster reimbursement cycles, and reduced administrative headaches for physician practices. In addition to helping individual practices, athenahealth will share state-specific claim data with the IMS that will help the medical society to substantiate and resolve problems with payers on behalf of its members.

"The ability of our member physicians to care for patients is directly related to the financial health of their practices. To help our members provide the best care possible, the Iowa Medical Society is constantly evaluating and recommending tools that will help physicians practice medicine more effectively," said IMS President Mariannette Miller-Meeks, MD. "athenahealth is the only medical practice service provider we have found that fully integrates all facets of practice management, billing and collections, and a new web-based Electronic Medical Record service. It’s an offering IMS stands behind with confidence as we believe it will significantly help our physicians run more efficient practices and better serve patients."