Addiction treatment provider BrightView Health has acquired Boston-based Column Health.
The deal closed on Aug. 8, BrightView Health Chief Development Officer Dylan Jackson told BHB in an interview.
This deal marks Cincinnati-based BrightView Health’s second acquisition in 2022. It also gives BrightView a presence in its second and third new state markets this year.
Column Health provides virtual and in-person medication-assisted treatment and psychotherapy services to about 2,200 patients and operates 11 locations in Massachusetts and one in Connecticut. It also has plans to open four new locations, according to its website.
Earlier this year, BrightView Health expanded into North Carolina through the acquisition of New Leaf Centers, Jackson said.
“We’re seeking to be one of the industry-leading outpatient addiction treatment platforms over the next four years,” Jackson said. “We’re targeting a trajectory in the 200+ range over the relatively near term, three to five years, and are continuing to build the case and the geography to support that.”
He added that the company is targeting a clinic footprint of 200 to 250 locations in the next three to four years.
CEO Chad Smith cofounded BrightView Health with Dr. Shawn Ryan and Ray Compagna in 2015. The company provides medication-assisted treatment (MAT), individual and group counseling, peer recovery support and wraparound social support services.
Following the deal, BrightView Health now operates 76 locations across Delaware, Kentucky, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia.
In December 2021, BrightView Health acquired Right Path Addiction Treatment Centers in Virginia, expanding BrightView’s reach into the state.
Both the Column Health and New Leaf Center deals give BrightView Health footholds in states with “plenty of upside” in terms of de novo locations. Massachusetts and North Carolina are also areas of high need for addiction treatment and well supported by the state payer and regulatory environment.
Column Health’s clinics are clustered in and near Boston. Jackson said the company will seek to add locations in the western reaches of the state.
Clinical alignment between BrightView Health and Column Health represented the primary “business driver” behind the deal, Jackson said.
“What’s really important to us when we’re entering into new states — specifically ones far away from our home geography — is that the providers and practitioners think and behave in a way under a patient care context that’s very similar to the way that we do,” Jackson said. “It’s somewhat rare in this space to find groups that are highly aligned with you from a clinical philosophy and an outcome perspective for addiction treatment.”
Chicago-based Shore Capital Partners has investment positions in both BrightView Health and Column Health. The private equity firm — which targets microcap investments in the business services, real estate, food & beverage, and health care industries — invested in BrightView Health in October 2017 and Column Health in December 2020.
A spokesperson for Shore Capital Partners declined to comment for this story.
Ryan, who is also chief medical officer for BrightView Health, told BHB in October 2021 that the company would balance its growth strategy between de novos and acquisitions.
Jackson said that BrightView is “constantly on the lookout for acquisitions with founding teams or physician founders who are looking to part ways with their assets that give BrightView access points into geographies in which it’s not currently active and also deemed to be high need areas.”
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