Centerstone and Brightli, two of the largest behavioral health and addiction treatment nonprofits in the U.S., will merge into a single organization in November. The deal is expected to create an organization with a combined annual revenue of $1 billion.

Once complete, Springfield, Missouri-based Brightli and Nashville, Tennessee-based Centerstone will scale operations to nine states with a combined workforce of approximately 10,300 employees across 360 locations. The deal does not include Centerstone’s international network of 1,500 providers outside of the U.S.

The merger will also include Brightli’s seven subsidiaries and affiliates.

The two CEOs, David Guth Jr. of Centerstone and C.J. Davis of Brightli, told Behavioral Health Business that the transaction was spurred by what they agree is an “inflection point for behavioral health” brought on by declining stigma and increasing service demand.  

“There is so much opportunity in front of us to advance the science of care and how that is applied with precision to people,” Guth told BHB. “Too often today, people are bounced around trying to find a provider who is a good fit, trying to find a service that’s a good fit and also while knowing that much of what is practiced across the country is somewhat dated. This inflection point, the opportunity for our two organizations that have been working at this goal to join forces and do this together, is just a really amazing opportunity.”

With the $1 billion in combined revenue after completion, the CEOs also expect significant organic growth. The combined organization will focus on expanding its teams to meet the rising demand amid the nationwide staffing shortage.

“Growth is not just the revenue, but how we can add to our clinical teams and those valued assets of people who walk through the door. I think that’s a really important factor,” Davis told BHB. “We are very adamant that we will only add the right partners. Not only will we explore partnerships in the future, but I think we need to look at organic growth within our designated states that we’re already in. There are plenty of opportunities as we attain scale for us to target partners in local markets that would be great for helping us to further our commitment to our communities.”

Each time Brightli has been part of a merger, Davis said the company has seen around a 10-15% increase in the number of new applicants for positions. Continuing that growth trajectory and remaining focused on innovation will help attract new talent, he said.

The expanded scale post-merger will also put the company in a strong position to negotiate with payers and approach them to ask what they need for their health plan recipients.

“For too long, behavioral health has often sat back and waited for the payer to tell us what they need or what they want,” Davis said. “I’d love for an entity like ours to be proactive in this space, approaching payers with data suggesting new programs and opportunities that make a difference in the lives of those recipients under their healthcare plan.”

As part of the merger, Centerstone’s Institute for Clinical Excellence and Innovation will extend its resources to Brightli, and the two will collaboratively identify and develop tools to keep innovation at the forefront of the field.

“We’re really trying to determine what’s the best for each of us, and adopting best practices to create something that I think is spectacular,” Davis said. “The opportunity that we have in front of us as we blend together the incredible talent that we have, I think can push the envelope to a tipping point for our industry, especially as it relates to innovation and clinical practice.”

The transaction is still in the due diligence phase, with final conversations with financial and regulatory partners being explored. After its completion, the top priorities for integration will be staff support, implementing best practices from both organizations to enhance operational efficiency and monitoring progress. 

“The real work begins after the merger happens,” Guth said. “That’s not the finish line, that’s the starting line.”

Expanding telehealth support, school mental health services and military population services, as well as examining community needs, will also be a central focus following the merger’s completion. New service lines could be developed in time, Guth said, but initially they will keep a pulse on developing programs to meet community demands.

“Although we’re going to scale up, we really want to make sure that we still feel local for respective communities,” Davis said. “When we talk about new services, it’s also important to focus on some of the old services and the new emerging data that is out there around them. What we need to do is lean into and understand that single-session care can be a new wave of an emerging science that we should embrace as people come in and may get their needs met after one session.”

Key performance indicators the CEOs and their boards will look to for success include timely access, number of patients served, which is anticipated to rise to 250,000 annually per the press release, patient satisfaction and staff satisfaction.

As the due diligence phase of the merger progresses, Guth said, most immediately they will be “heads down around making sure that we are optimally knitting these two organizations together in ways that really benefit the patient experience.”