There is no truth to the rumor that we bought shares of athenahealth, Inc. (ATHN, Financial) after watching its CEO, Jonathan Bush (yes, that Bush) administer CPR on the street to a distressed passerby and saving his life on TV. We bought the shares a few weeks prior to that but admit it was one of the coolest things and we are proud to invest with Jonathan. Athena provides cloud-based business services for physicians and other health care providers. The company’s flagship offering, athenaCollector, automates and manages billing-related functions for medical practices. Other offerings include a cloud-based electronic health service, patient engagement and communication service, and population health management service. We believe athena’s offering is unique. Clients operate on a single web-based version of athena’s software and benefit from real-time updates and the collective experience of other clients. This contrasts with traditional, onpremise software, which requires expensive installations and upgrades. The result is that athenaCollector clients experience faster reimbursement from payors and increased collections. Athena’s other service offerings help health care providers operate more efficiently, reduce costs, coordinate care across different care settings and meet the complexity of new reimbursement models. We think athena’s model is superior to the traditional software model and expect the company to gain market share over time. Athena has grown from $76 million in revenue in 2006 to over $900 million in 2015. Although the overall growth rate has slowed from over 30% to roughly 20% as the revenue base has grown, we believe the company can continue to grow at attractive rates and expand profit margins well into the future.
From the Baron Fifth Avenue Growth Fund Fourth Quarter 2015 Letter.
