WATERTOWN, Mass., Oct. 20, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATHN), a leading provider of network-enabled services and mobile applications for healthcare providers nationwide, today announced financial and operational results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2016. We will hold a conference call tomorrow, Friday, October 21, 2016, at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss these results and management’s outlook for future financial and operational performance.

“As we continue to build our national network - today, having connected over 85,000 providers, 83 million unique patient records, and 140,000 network endpoints - athenahealth is well-positioned to improve healthcare delivery in this country,” said Jonathan Bush, chairman and chief executive officer, athenahealth. “We are also uniquely positioned to leverage our network data for good and are making great strides in furtherance of our mission to unbreak healthcare. To this end, we recently launched athenaInsight, an editorial hub reporting from the heart of the healthcare internet on healthcare’s bright spots, drivers of effective physician leadership and engagement, and trends tied to public health. As we look ahead, our strategic priorities and investments will be focused on further leveraging our unique platform to deliver true client success.”

Q3 2016 and Year-to-Date 2016 Financial Results

• Total revenue for the three months ended September 30, 2016, was $276.7 million, compared to $236.1 million in the same period last year, an increase of 17%.
• Total revenue for the nine months ended September 30, 2016, was $794.8 million, compared to $667.2 million in the same period last year, an increase of 19%.
• Net new active physicians added to the network: athenaCollector® (3,829 physicians added), athenaClinicals® (2,090 physicians added), and athenaCommunicator® (3,416 physicians added) for the three months ended September 30, 2016, compared to athenaCollector (3,953 physicians added), athenaClinicals (2,818 physicians added), and athenaCommunicator (3,422 physicians added) in the same period last year.
• Net new active providers added to the network: athenaCollector (5,092 providers added), athenaClinicals (2,844 providers added), and athenaCommunicator (4,478 providers added) for the three months ended September 30, 2016, compared to athenaCollector (4,784 providers added), athenaClinicals (3,430 providers added), and athenaCommunicator (4,084 providers added) in the same period last year.

“The athenahealth team continued to make progress against many of our financial and operational goals in the third quarter and are thrilled with another quarterly record number of providers added to our network,” said Karl Stubelis, chief financial officer, athenahealth. “Year-to-date, we have delivered against our internal financial goals, adding over 10,000 providers to our network and growing consolidated revenue by over 19%. We remain positioned to continue to drive meaningful change in healthcare and look forward to providing an update on our strategic priorities at our upcoming investor summit in December.”

• For the three months ended September 30, 2016, Non-GAAP Adjusted Gross Margin was 65.0%, compared to 62.9% in the same period last year.
• For the three months ended September 30, 2016, GAAP Operating Income was $15.2 million, or 5.5% of total revenue, compared to GAAP Operating Income of $3.2 million, or 1.4% of total revenue, in the same period last year.
• For the three months ended September 30, 2016, Non-GAAP Adjusted Operating Income was $41.5 million, or 15.0% of total revenue, compared to $25.4 million, or 10.8% of total revenue, in the same period last year.
• For the three months ended September 30, 2016, GAAP Net Income was $13.9 million, or $0.35 per diluted share, compared to GAAP Net Income of $5.8 million, or $0.15 per diluted share, in the same period last year.
• For the three months ended September 30, 2016, Non-GAAP Adjusted Net Income was $24.1 million, or $0.60 per diluted share, compared to $14.3 million, or $0.36 per diluted share, in the same period last year.

Fiscal Year 2016 Outlook

We communicated our fiscal year 2016 guidance on December 10, 2015 at our 8th Annual Investor Summit. Our fiscal year 2016 guidance is summarized in the following table:

We are not making any changes to the fiscal year 2016 guidance we communicated on December 10, 2015 at our 8th Annual Investor Summit. However, based on our year-to-date performance that was relatively in line with our internal financial goals and our current expectations for Q4 2016, we are providing additional insight into our fiscal year 2016 guidance as follows:

• We expect GAAP Total Revenue to be near the mid-point of the $1,085 million to $1,115 million guidance range.
• We expect Non-GAAP Adjusted Gross Margin to be near the mid-point of the 63.5% to 64.5% guidance range.
• We expect Non-GAAP Adjusted Operating Income to be near the mid-point of the $120 million to $135 million guidance range.
• Finally, we expect Non-GAAP Adjusted Net Income per Diluted Share to be near the mid-point of the $1.65 to $1.85 guidance range.

¹ We release annual guidance once per year at our annual investor summit. Recently, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staff issued updates to its Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations regarding the use of non-GAAP financial measures. However, we believe that revising this table mid-year during 2016 to present the GAAP equivalent may confuse the investment community. As a result, we plan to present both the non-GAAP financial measure and the applicable GAAP financial measure in this table beginning with the release of our fiscal year 2017 guidance.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In our earnings releases, prepared remarks, conference calls, slide presentations, and webcasts, we may use or discuss non-GAAP financial measures, as defined by Regulation G. The GAAP financial measure most directly comparable to each non-GAAP financial measure used or discussed, and a reconciliation of the differences between each non-GAAP financial measure and the comparable GAAP financial measure, are included in this press release after the condensed consolidated financial statements. Our earnings press releases containing such non-GAAP reconciliations can be found in the Investors section of our website at www.athenahealth.com.

About athenahealth, Inc.

athenahealth is a leading provider of network-enabled services for electronic health records (EHR), revenue cycle management and medical billing, patient engagement, care coordination, and population health management, as well as Epocrates and other point-of-care mobile apps. We connect care and drive meaningful, measurable results for more than 85,000 healthcare providers nationwide. For a view of network effect in action by exploring data as it flows across athenahealth’s nationwide network, please visit https://insight.athenahealth.com/interactive-a-look-at-interoperability. For more information, please visit www.athenahealth.com.