Transactions: Aware Recovery Care Scores PE Investment for In-Home Addiction Model; SUD Providers Merge

PE Firm Health Enterprise Partners invests in Aware Recovery Care

Aware Recovery Care, an in-home addiction treatment provider serving residents primarily in New England, has received a private equity investment from the growth equity firm Health Enterprise Partners.

Details of the investment were not disclosed.

Based in Wallingford, Connecticut, Aware Recovery serves patients across Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts and Florida. It partners with payers to offer in-home addiction treatment as a covered benefit. Meanwhile, Health Enterprise Partners (HEP) is a New York City-based firm that specializes in investments in privately held, lower middle market healthcare services and information technology companies.

The investment will help Aware expand its footprint in new and existing geographies, partner with more payers and add on additional services to compliment its existing program. Aware also said that it chose HEP as a capital partner given the firm’s relationships across the health care industry in addition to its reputation for helping other health care businesses achieve scale in their operations.

Footprints to Recovery Merges with Vogue Recovery Center

Two addiction treatment operators have joined forces, as Chicago-based Footprints to Recovery and Las Vegas-based Vogue Recovery Center have announced a merger.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Both Vogue and Footprints will retain their existing brands under the agreement and share an internal structure. Footprints operates three treatment centers in Illinois, Colorado and Arizona, while Vogue operates three in Las Vegas, Phoenix and California. As such, the new company will have six locations and national scale, as well as a full spectrum of SUD treatment programs.

Michael Milch, who joined Vogue last year as CEO and was previously an executive vice president with Footprints, will serve as CEO of the new company. Meanwhile, Vogue’s COO Ambrozino Storr, Footprints’ chief marketing officer William Wilder and Footprints’ chief financial officer Janice Vaysberg will retain their titles in the new C-suite.

UPD leases Kentucky property for treatment center

UPD Holding Corporation (OTC: UPDC), a Reno, Nevada-based holding company with a focus on health and wellness, has entered into a commercial lease agreement for a 90,000 square foot facility in Lexington, Kentucky. It plans to operate the facility as a substance abuse treatment center.

The building, which formerly had been a hotel and conference center, has 150 rooms and will be used primarily as an inpatient center to treat up to 200 individuals in residential detox and transitional programs, UPD CEO Mark Conte announced in a press release. The lease agreement is for five years with an option to renew thereafter for two additional five year-terms.

UPD’s two wholly-owned subsidiaries are United Product Development and iMetabolic.

Advanced Recovery Systems adds to network with latest JV

A joint venture has led to the opening of a $27 million inpatient drug and alcohol treatment center outside of Philadelphia.

Located in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, the 90-bed the Recovery Village Cherry Hill at Cooper is a JV between Camden, New Jersey-based Cooper University Health Care and Orlando, Florida-based addiction treatment provider Advanced Recovery Systems.

The new center compliments Advanced Recovery Systems’ national network of seven accredited rehab centers.

Recovery Village employs a staff of 40 and serves adults with addiction and co-occurring mental health disorders, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal. The center accepts most private insurance plans.