Bay Area Clinical Associates announced Friday that it plans to expand nationwide following a new partnership with Charleston, South Carolina-based private equity firm Frontline Healthcare Partners.
The San Jose, California-based mental health provider presently has over 80 youth-focused clinicians, including 35 child and adolescent psychiatrists, and claims to be one of the largest groups on the West Coast, according to a news release.
Bay Area Clinical Associates provides multidisciplinary team care to children, adolescents, young adults, and their families.
“We must create more access for youth and their families, and take better care of our clinicians and staff in order for them to maximize their impact for our patients,” Dr. Tom Tarshis, Bay Area Clinical Associates founder and CEO, said in the release. “Our partnership with Frontline will accelerate our next phase of growth as we look to expand our geographic reach and our continuum of services nationwide in order to serve more patients and their families.”
Tardis said the expansion of Bay Area Clinical Associates is a response to the worsening state of mental health in the U.S. — especially among children. He points to the fact that suicide is a leading cause of death in the U.S. The National Institute of Mental Health finds that suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the U.S. generally and is the second leading cause of death among people aged 10 to 34.
The release doesn’t specify any terms of the deal or even the nature of the deal, simply calling it a partnership.
Bay Area Clinical Associates’ first expansion location will be is Austin, Texas, Tarshis said in an email. The company presently operates three locations in California and is opening locations in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Mateo with plans to expand into San Diego this fall.
Frontline Healthcare Partners exclusively invests “in lower middle market, distributed healthcare businesses,” according to the company’s website. It emphasizes investment in provider-based clinical services and management support organizations, business services and technology and other value-added services to the health care industry.
Frontline’s website also specifies that it targets investments in businesses with $1 to $5 million in EBITDA. It also targets investments with strong control rights “aimed at supporting experienced management teams to execute on a differentiated business model with attractive growth opportunities.”
“We look forward to the opportunity to expand services nationwide and continue to support infrastructural needs to nourish an optimal work environment for clinicians and staff,” Dennis Smith, partner at Frontline Healthcare Partners, said in the release.
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