Behavioral health operators The Nord Center and The LCADA Way will merge, effective July 1, 2024.
The Lorain, Ohio-based nonprofits will form a $45 million organization that employs about 425 people and operates about a dozen locations, according to a news release. The move attempts to create a “no wrong door approach to behavioral health care and substance use disorder in our community,” Nord Center CEO Don Schiffbauer said in a news release.
While the merged organization will eventually rebrand, the name was not announced. Schiffbauer will remain CEO. LCADA Way CEO and President Dan Haight will be chief operating officer.
Both organizations provide a wide range of services for adults and children. To name a few, these include addiction treatment, mental health, prevention services, harm reduction and crisis services.
Before announcing the merger, The Nord Center and The LCADA Way announced a partnership to launch the Lorain County Crisis Receiving Center. Construction began in December. It is set to open in 2025. In part, talks for joint facility operations sparked the conversation of a merger, the release states.
“By taking the initiative to officially integrate the two organizations, we have taken a major step forward,” Haight said in the release. “This new flagship agency will be able to more fully leverage the financial and human resources to effectively and consistently deliver high quality and high value behavioral health and substance use disorder care to Lorain, Erie and Cuyahoga Counties and surrounding communities.”
Behavioral Health Business has tracked other mergers in the nonprofit space.
Often, similar or complementary provider types unite to get out of each other’s way in terms of community mission or see a way to optimize their operating costs. At times, these moves can create substantial organizations.
In September, BHB reported that intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) providers I Am Boundless and Koinonia would merge, creating an organization that would generate just over $135 million in annual revenue. These organizations are also based in Ohio.
The nonprofit space makes up a large part of the collective behavioral health industry. Looking at mental health and addiction treatment facilities alone, about 48% of addiction treatment facilities and 62% of mental health treatment facilities are private nonprofits, according to 2022 data collected by the federal government.
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