athenahealth Gets Another Client Live with athenaCollector

athenahealth, Inc., the premier provider of web-based services, knowledge, and software for medical practices, announced today that Ohio Gastroenterology Group Inc., one of the region’s largest gastroenterology medical groups, has gone live on athenahealth’s award-winning, on-demand practice management service to improve the operational workflow and financial performance of their three locations throughout Columbus, Ohio. Ohio Gastroenterology recently switched from a legacy software-based practice management system and will now use athenahealth’s billing and practice management service, athenaCollectorSM, to streamline administrative and financial operations through measurable and consistent results.

“As our practice grew, we realized we needed a scalable practice management system that was built on delivering results,” said Chris Masciola, practice manager for Ohio Gastroenterology Group. “Unlike traditional practice management systems, athenahealth provides us with a full range of integrated business services on a flexible subscription basis. The service-based approach will empower Ohio Gastroenterology to streamline our administrative efficiencies along with our billing and collections.”

athenahealth has the industry’s only physician revenue cycle management offering that integrates web-based practice management software, continually updated payer 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 claims 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.

“We are seeing a paradigm shift occurring in the physician practice market. Software-based practice management systems are no longer an ideal model for the medical groups in the ambulatory space as these practices are left figuring out new payer rules or having to wait for new, expensive upgrades so they can continue to try to function at an optimal level,” said Jonathan Bush, chairman and chief executive officer of athenahealth. “The beauty of athenahealth and our on-demand practice management services is that we give our customers the industry’s top-ranked, web-based software for free and then athenahealth manages the revenue cycle supply chain for the practice as part of a service that is designed to deliver consistent results for the practice.”

With athenahealth’s unique knowledge-based approach to practice management, medical groups like the Ohio Gastroenterology Group have the ability to capture complex, ever-changing payer data. As athenahealth expands its physician network, it is able to continually improve the performance of physician practices in a given state or region. In addition, with athenahealth’s payer data network, physicians experience an immediate reduction in accounts receivable and a significant increase in collections.