The longtime CEO of Discovery Behavioral Health, John Peloquin, has retired and been replaced by Tom Britton, an executive who has held a handful of roles in the behavioral health industry over the last few years.

The Irvine, California-based mental health and addiction treatment provider was formed in 2018 following the merger of Webster Equity Partners-backed Center for Discovery and Cliffside Malibu. Peloquin was the CEO of Cliffside Malibu and subsequently served as the CEO of the combined company.

Discovery Behavioral Health operates about 130 sites in 11 states. It offers eating disorder treatment, mental health, substance use disorder and psychiatric care to adults and adolescents.

Before coming to Discovery Behavioral Health, Britton was named CEO of the Chicago-based Gateway Foundation in April 2015, the CEO of American Addiction Centers in February 2022 and CEO of Accanto Health in January 2024. Britton stepped down from the CEO role at Accanto Health a little more than a year later.

“In a time when the need for behavioral health support has never been greater, Discovery Behavioral Health stands at the forefront of hope and recovery,” Britton said in a news release. “Together, we will continue to elevate the standards of care, harness innovation, and ensure that every patient feels seen, supported, and empowered on their journey to wellness.”

Peloquin was previously the president of CRC Health Group, an entity acquired by Acadia Healthcare (Nasdaq: ACHC) in 2014. He worked at CRC Health for 13 years, according to his social media profile. 

Behavioral Health Business

In a podcast interview, Peloquin told Behavioral Health Business that the company had not deviated from its core ethos of “providing quality care in a very efficient way and getting the greatest results we can for each patient” over the last few years, which have been marked by major changes in the market. 

He also highlighted the company’s investment in an electronic health record and outcomes tracking system.

“We try to measure every point of care across that patient, not to homogenize treatment, but to try to calibrate and give that patient what they need to get them well,” Peloquin said.

Despite the investment in care tracking and being able to demonstrate improvements in patient condition, Peloquin was a skeptic of the proliferation of value-based care models in behavioral health.

Previously, he described on the podcast the company’s efforts to bring immense data to prove care quality but ultimately left the experience realizing that payers at large are simply not ready or interested in such models.

“There’s a handful that are trying to dabble into a value-based framework, but none of the payers are really at a place where they’re ready to do a value-based relationship,” Peloquin said.

He noted, as many have before, that behavioral health spending is typically a small cost item compared to other elements of health spending but that behavioral health is a contributing factor for payer costs regardless of actuarial lines. That makes the difficulty of value-based care contracting more difficult than discrete provider relations; it’s about reassessing, tracking and rewarding behavioral health for the total cost of care of plan members.

“It’s really going to be on the payers to make sure that they have a desire to address behavioral health in a more systematic way,” Peloquin said.

Previously, BHB has identified Discovery Behavioral Health as a company to watch for a potential sale. The company is overdue for a sale under the traditional five-year hold model, as it is seven years out from its previous recapitalization, which came about seven years after Webster Equity Partners invested in Center for Discovery.