WATERTOWN, Mass., Feb. 02, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATHN), a leading provider of network-enabled services and point-of-care mobile applications for hospitals and ambulatory clients nationwide, today announced financial and operational results for the fourth quarter and full year 2016. We will conduct a conference call tomorrow, Friday, February 3, 2017, at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss these results and management’s outlook for future financial and operational performance.

Q4 2016 and Full Year 2016 Financial Results

During 2016, we adopted a change in presentation on our consolidated statements of income in order to present a gross profit line and allocate certain overhead expenses, the presentation of which is consistent with our peers. Under the new presentation, we began allocating overhead expenses, such as occupancy charges, depreciation, and amortization of capitalized software for our GAAP financial results. Prior periods have been revised to reflect this change in presentation.

• Net new active physicians added to the network: athenaCollector® (1,366 physicians added), athenaClinicals® (1,573 physicians added), and athenaCommunicator® (2,009 physicians added) for the three months ended December 31, 2016, compared to athenaCollector (2,148 physicians added), athenaClinicals (1,126 physicians added), and athenaCommunicator (1,965 physicians added) in the same period last year.
• Net new active providers added to the network: athenaCollector (2,226 providers added), athenaClinicals (2,288 providers added), and athenaCommunicator (3,074 providers added) for the three months ended December 31, 2016, compared to athenaCollector (3,102 providers added), athenaClinicals (1,613 providers added), and athenaCommunicator (2,835 providers added) in the same period last year.
• Net new active physicians added to the network: athenaCollector (8,539 physicians added), athenaClinicals (6,145 physicians added), and athenaCommunicator (8,557 physicians added) for the twelve months ended December 31, 2016, compared to athenaCollector (9,854 physicians added), athenaClinicals (6,056 physicians added), and athenaCommunicator (8,472 physicians added) in the same period last year.
• Net new active providers added to the network: athenaCollector (12,275 providers added), athenaClinicals (8,656 providers added), and athenaCommunicator (11,942 providers added) for the twelve months ended December 31, 2016, compared to athenaCollector (13,067 providers added), athenaClinicals (7,880 providers added), and athenaCommunicator (11,044 providers added) in the same period last year.
• Total revenue for the three months ended December 31, 2016, was $288.2 million, compared to $257.5 million in the same period last year, an increase of 12%.
• Total revenue for full year 2016 was $1,082.9 million, compared to full year 2015 revenue of $924.7 million, an increase of 17%.

“Our expanding network now connects care across nearly 88,000 providers, nearly 86 million patients, and over 143,000 network endpoints. And, as the largest network in healthcare, our data-driven insights combined with our highly efficient and scalable back office work enables our clients to focus on the health of their patients, not paperwork, expand their market share, and get paid more, faster,” said Jonathan Bush, chairman and chief executive officer of athenahealth. “Today, we are more confident than ever about our ability to achieve our vision of building the healthcare internet. Our increasing depth and breadth of product management, technical design and development expertise, combined with our increasing bandwidth to focus on our own strategy versus the government mandates of recent years, should make us even more productive in 2017 as we deepen our services and build out our unique network.”

• For the three months ended December 31, 2016, GAAP Gross Margin was 53.7%, compared to 52.0% in the same period last year.
• For the three months ended December 31, 2016, Service Automation Rate, formerly referred to as Non-GAAP Adjusted Gross Margin, was 66.2%, compared to 65.0% in the same period last year.
• For the three months ended December 31, 2016, GAAP Operating Income was $12.4 million, or 4.3% of total revenue, compared to $6.7 million, or 2.6% of total revenue, in the same period last year.
• For the three months ended December 31, 2016, Non-GAAP Adjusted Operating Income was $42.5 million, or 14.7% of total revenue, compared to $31.3 million, or 12.1% of total revenue, in the same period last year.
• For the three months ended December 31, 2016, GAAP Net Income was $9.8 million, or $0.24 per diluted share, compared to $7.7 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, in the same period last year.
• For the three months ended December 31, 2016, Non-GAAP Adjusted Net Income was $25.0 million, or $0.62 per diluted share, compared to $17.8 million, or $0.45 per diluted share, in the same period last year.
• For the year ended December 31, 2016, GAAP Gross Margin was 50.7%, compared to 50.0% for the year ended December 31, 2015.
• For the year ended December 31, 2016, Service Automation Rate, formerly referred to as Non-GAAP Adjusted Gross Margin, was 64.1%, compared to 63.5% for the year ended December 31, 2015.
• For the year ended December 31, 2016, GAAP Operating Income was $26.6 million, or 2.5% of total revenue, compared to GAAP Operating Loss of $4.1 million, or 0.4% of total revenue, for the year ended December 31, 2015.
• For the year ended December 31, 2016, Non-GAAP Adjusted Operating Income was $132.3 million, or 12.2% of total revenue, compared to $95.1 million, or 10.3% of total revenue, for the year ended December 31, 2015.
• For the year ended December 31, 2016, GAAP Net Income was $21.0 million, or $0.52 per diluted share, compared to $14.0 million, or $0.35 per diluted share, for the year ended December 31, 2015.
• For the year ended December 31, 2016, Non-GAAP Adjusted Net Income was $76.0 million, or $1.90 per diluted share, compared to $53.7 million, or $1.35 per diluted share, for the year ended December 31, 2015.

“We continued to build on our track record of driving strong growth and profitability during 2016. We signed $348 million of bookings, we onboarded over 12,000 providers onto our network, and we significantly improved the efficiency of our operations and service delivery,” said Karl Stubelis, chief financial officer of athenahealth. “As we execute on our plans for the current year, we remain well positioned to further expand our network, build upon our many operational strengths, reinvest in our future, and deliver on our 2017 growth and profitability goals.”

The provider counts disclosed above have since been refined, effective January 1, 2017, to include additional provider types (e.g., behavioral interventionists and certified physician assistants), and the athenaCommunicator provider count has been further refined to reflect providers whose practices have enabled the patient portal. We will begin reporting the provider counts with these refined definitions in Q1 2017.

Fiscal Year 2017 Outlook

We are reaffirming our fiscal year 2017 guidance communicated on December 15, 2016 at our Ninth Annual Investor Summit.

About athenahealth, Inc.

athenahealth partners with hospital and ambulatory clients to drive clinical and financial results. We offer medical record, revenue cycle, patient engagement, care coordination, and population health services. We combine insights from our network of nearly 88,000 providers and nearly 86 million patients with deep industry knowledge and perform administrative work at scale. For more information, please visit www.athenahealth.com.