Thurston Group-backed behavioral health provider ARC Health has acquired Dayspring Behavioral Health.
This new purchase is part of ARC Health’s larger, ambitious M&A strategy. Since the company’s inception in 2021, it has closed more than a dozen acquisitions.
Dayspring Behavioral Health brings four locations in the Seattle Metro area to the table. The practice, which was founded in 2012, specializes in comprehensive counseling services and pediatric neuropsychological assessments.
“Dayspring’s core values, mission and objectives harmonize seamlessly with the ARC Healthcare partnership model,” Dr. Amy Ford, founder of Dayspring, said in a statement. “Our shared mission is to deliver top-tier services to the community, enhance accessibility and prioritize the well-being of our employees.”
The Washington-based provider serves roughly 450 clients a month over 1,600 sessions. It offers counseling, evaluations and coaching. Its providers work with several major insurance providers, including Aetna, Cigna and UnitedHealthcare. It does not currently accept Medicaid.
This partnership was facilitated by Agenda Health, a healthcare-focused M&A advisory firm headquartered in Austin, Texas.
Ohio-based ARC Health launched after private equity firm The Thurston Group acquired Advance Recovery Concepts and rebranded. ARC consolidates outpatient mental health space and expands access to care.
While M&A is core to ARC Health’s strategy, it prioritizes keeping on new leadership when it acquires a company to provide patient continuity of care.
“We identify practices that are like-minded in great quality practice, great quality clinicians. Patients come to them for their brand, or for their name, for their clinicians, for how they do care, how they treat patients. We don’t want to disrupt it,” Dr. Boris Royak, chief clinical officer at ARC Health, said during a BHB webinar. “We want to encourage it and we want to help practices grow.”
ARC Health’s other recent acquisitions include Silver Lake Psychology and Denver Wellness Associates, Positive Change Counseling Center, Wellington Counseling Group, the Colorado Center for Clinical Excellence and the Lilac Center.
While ARC Health continues to pursue an aggressive M&A strategy, behavioral health deal-making, on the whole, has dipped. In the first half of 2023, behavioral health deals were down 33% year-over-year, according to data by the M&A advisory firm The Braff Group.
And things could remain quiet in the sector for the rest of the year.
“The story of 2023 will be how macroeconomic trends have upended the M&A market across all industries,” Dexter Braff, president of The Braff Group, previously told BHB. “Rising interest rates coupled with the record-breaking deal volume and pricing during 2021 and the first half of 2022 have combined to blunt activity in 2023.”
Companies featured in this article:
