Develop Health Launches Integration with athenahealth to Automate Prior Authorization at the Point of Care

MENLO PARK, Calif., Dec. 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Develop Health, an AI-powered eligibility and prior authorization automation platform, today announced its integration with athenaOne, bringing its end-to-end access automation directly into athenahealth's electronic health record (EHR). The collaboration gives providers a faster, more reliable way to start patients on the right medications, completely removing steps that have historically taken hours in each week.

With the integration, clinicians prescribe as usual in athenaOne while Develop Health runs automatically in the background to accelerate the access for the patient. The platform completes benefit verification, identifies and submits the correct prior authorization (PA) form, and tracks status updates through final determination. All of this occurs without additional clicks or workflow adjustments. Crucially, this means that providers no longer need to spend time extracting evidence from patient notes, filling forms, or following up with PBMs, laborious tasks that have typically distracted from patient care.

Solving a Major Driver of Physician Burnout

The average physician completes 43 prior authorizations per week—one of the leading contributors to administrative fatigue and delayed care. athenahealth's strengths in AI-driven documentation and workflow optimization now combine with Develop Health's access automation to eliminate hours of manual work per provider. As well as saving the initial work to fill in forms for physicians, incidences of human error are entirely removed, while still giving physicians an opportunity to review before submission. This further reduces rework as first try acceptance rates increase.

"Integrating directly into athenaOne allows us to meet clinicians exactly where decisions are made," said Mel van Londen, co-founder and CEO of Develop Health. "By automating benefit checks, and payer submissions at the moment of prescribing, we remove one of healthcare's biggest friction points. Patients get to therapy sooner, and clinicians get back meaningful time."

Proven Impact in Real-World Clinical Settings

Develop Health's platform is already demonstrating meaningful operational improvements across digital health and provider organizations. In a recent case study, Calibrate, a metabolic health company, reported a 70% reduction in hands-on PA time and a 5–7x decrease in the number of PAs required per member, driven by benefits-based routing and automated status retrieval. These efficiencies translate into clearer communication with patients and quicker access to medications and other essential therapies.

Seamless, Embedded Experience

Built to be invisible to the clinician, the integration works entirely within athenaOne. Benefit checks, PBM-specific form completion and follow-up happen automatically, with updates returned directly into the workflow. Develop Health is able to automatically source the patient's clinical information across all historic visits and lab reports, only taking the most relevant pieces and including them into the final submissions to PBMs. Providers no longer need to log into separate portals or perform routine status checks, reducing hours of administrative work to just seconds of automated processing.

A Shared Mission to Eliminate Access Friction

By bringing Develop Health's automation into athenaOne, both organizations are advancing a shared goal: reducing delays and administrative hurdles that stand between patients and the treatments they need.

"This partnership reflects what provider-first automation should accomplish," added van Londen. "Together with athenahealth, we're removing long-standing barriers to medication access and helping clinicians deliver timely, effective care."

About Develop Health

Develop Health streamlines prescribing by running benefit verification across all relevant medications, surfacing clear coverage, prior authorization requirements, and cost information, and automating both prior authorization and appeal creation with AI while auto-applying the best available manufacturer support. By reducing administrative burden and eliminating coverage friction at the point of care, the platform helps providers choose the right therapy efficiently—ensuring patients receive their medications faster, more reliably, and at the lowest possible cost. To learn more, visit https://www.develophealth.ai/athenahealth.

About athenahealth

athenahealth strives to cure complexity and simplify the practice of healthcare. Our innovative technology includes electronic health records, revenue cycle management, and patient engagement solutions that help healthcare providers, administrators, and practices eliminate friction for patients while getting paid efficiently. athenahealth partners with practices with purpose-built software backed by expertise to produce the insights needed to drive better clinical and financial outcomes. Learn more at athenahealth.com.

Media Contact:
Maddison Brady
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SOURCE Develop Health