Athenahealth expanding to Maine

A Massachusetts company that offers Internet-based business services for medical practices announced today that it plans to open an operations center in Belfast, Maine that could provide as many as 600 jobs within five years.

Athenahealth, of Watertown, Mass., is spending $6.1 million to buy a 130,000-square-foot building at the former MBNA headquarters left vacant after Bank of America acquired the credit card bank and cut 345 jobs at various locations around the state.

Athenahealth, a publicly traded company headed by a first cousin of President Bush, said it was attracted by the MBNA facilities, along with the availability of a trained work force and telecommunications infrastructure.

"Given athenahealth's continued growth and demand for our unique service-based offerings to medical groups, we anticipate creating hundreds of new jobs in the region in the years to come as we look to better support our growing national network of physician clients," said Jonathan Bush, chairman and CEO.

Chief Operating Officer James MacDonald said the company planned to employ up to 100 people in Belfast in the next year and could have up to 600 there within five years.

Athenahealth said it considered other sites in Maine, as well as locations in Vermont, Massachusetts, upstate New York and Rhode Island, before settling on Belfast.

A key factor was Maine's Pine Tree Zone tax incentives, targeted at industries that locate in specific areas of the state with high unemployment rates, officials said.

Maine & Co., a private, nonprofit organization credited with helping to attract athenahealth, said the jobs it provides will be a step up from those at MBNA.

"If you look at what was there before, it was a call center, and that's fine," said Matt Jacobson, president and CEO of Maine & Co. "That's a certain level of work. Athena is going to put an operations center there. These are going to be higher-level kinds of positions."

Athenahealth, which made its Wall Street debut Sept. 25 with an initial public offering that netted about $81.3 million, offers Web-based software designed to help medical practices with communications and billings in areas ranging from pharmacy orders and lab results to insurance filings.

In its first quarterly report for the three months ended Sept. 30, the company posted a $500,000 profit on revenues of $26.2 million. (AP)