Athenahealth Inc. (NSDQ:ATHN) entered into a strategic partnership with U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) and its subsidiary, Elavon, to launch a payment processing service for physicians using Athenahealth’s web-based billing and practice management software.
Watertown, Mass.-based Athenahealth said it will integrate U.S Bancorp’s services into its athenaCollector and athenaNET software programs, which provide billing management assistance to physicians by flagging medical bill errors, up-to-date insurance rules and claims submissions.
Company officials said that in addition to enhancing the athenaCollector payment processing, clients will be able to access a suite of financial services like merchant processing and wealth management.
The partnership is the second strategic alliance Athenahealth has signed in as many days.
The company said March 1 that it will partner with Sermo, an online physician community, which Athenahealth officials said will help identify the needs of physicians in improving EMRs.
The deals also might help take away some of the sting of last week’s earnings announcement postponement, which caused a more than 15 percent drop in the price of Athenahealth’s stock.