Acadia Forms JV With Regional Provider Orlando Health

After recently forming a joint venture (JV) with a California health system, Acadia Healthcare (Nasdaq: ACHC) is establishing another on the opposite side of the country.

Acadia is partnering with Orlando Health, an Orlando, Florida-based health care organization, for its latest behavioral health JV. Under the partnership, Acadia will help manage and expand Orlando Health’s behavioral services to residents in central Florida and the Southeast.

Acadia’s responsibilities for Orlando Health will include expanding inpatient and outpatient programs, enhancing community outreach activities, developing comprehensive psychiatric strategies, as well as improving the experiences of physicians, customers and patients.

The arrangement will also have Acadia assuming management responsibilities for the behavioral health program at Orlando Health South Seminole Hospital.

“We are so proud to be partnering with Orlando Health,” Dr. Jeffrey Woods, the operations group president of Acadia Healthcare, said in a press release issued by the company and Orlando Health. “Acadia has strong and experienced leaders to support Orlando Health’s behavioral health programs. We look forward to working with the Orlando Health staff to continue providing exceptional care and exploring paths to expand access to meet the great demand in Central Florida.”

Orlando Health, which manages $7.6 billion in assets, has 3,200 beds throughout its system and operates 16 wholly-owned hospitals and emergency departments.

“We take great pride in providing the full continuum of care to our patients,” Orlando Health Medical Group president Sunil Desai said in the press release. “This partnership sets us on a strategic path to meet the current and future behavioral health needs in the communities we serve.”

Acadia’s new JV with Orlando Health follows its recent partnership with San Diego-based Scripps Health to build a 120-inpatient bed hospital in Chula Vista, California that is scheduled to open in 2023.

Acadia also recently broke ground in Battle Creek, Michigan with Bronson Healthcare for a 96-bed JV facility that is likewise due to open in 2023. Acadia and Bronson originally announced the formation of the JV in July.  

The nation’s largest standalone provider of behavioral health services, Acadia operates 230 facilities in 40 states and Puerto Rico.

Acadia, which earlier this year divested its United Kingdom operations, has been busy establishing stateside JVs over the last couple of years.

During a health care conference earlier this year, CEO Debbie Osteen — who is scheduled to retire from the company next month — talked of the leveraging advantages that she believes come through partnerships with other providers.

“These are important health systems,” Osteen said in early June during the virtual conference, which was sponsored by investment bank Jefferies. “They have, many times, more than one facility. … We can take advantage of their presence in the market. The ramp up is quicker. And frankly, we’re able to leverage their payer rates in most cases.”