UnitedHealth Group’s Optum unit has quietly purchased Jacksonville Seashore-based Refresh Psychological Well being from non-public fairness agency Kelso & Co., sources inform Axios.
Why it is the BFD: Refresh provides Optum an enormous entry level within the broader behavioral well being sector, which acquired elevated affected person demand from the pandemic and renewed payor focus.
By the numbers: The deal’s price ticket just isn’t clear, nevertheless it was solely in December 2020 that Kelso agreed to purchase Refresh at a valuation round $700 million, sources instructed Sarah on the time.
- Estimated 2020 EBITDA was roughly $40 million forward of the sale, sources mentioned then.
State of play: There’s a rising recognition across the hyperlink between psychological well being and bodily well being, and payors and suppliers are more and more factoring within the many co-morbidities related to poor behavioral well being circumstances.
- Refresh, based in 2017, operates a community of greater than 300 outpatient psychological well being, substance abuse and consuming dysfunction facilities spanning 37 states.
- The pandemic heightened demand for behavioral well being providers, with unemployment and lack of life stemming from the disaster anticipated to create long-term misery.
- The phase has additionally confirmed among the many most relevant areas of telehealth all through the pandemic.
Sure, and: Everybody from massive buyout funds to enterprise capital corporations are betting on the sector.
What they’re saying: Even individuals who as soon as believed there’d be vendor fatigue in digital care are seeing white house in digital psychological well being, Ambar Bhattacharyya, managing director at Maverick Ventures, tells Axios’ Erin Brodwin.
- Behavioral well being is “such a deep class,” that there is loads of room for startups of various measurement and kind, Bhattacharyya says. “There are such a lot of firms, and so they’ve all carried out so nicely, it’s fairly mind-boggling.”
Optum confirmed the deal, which has not been publicly introduced, in an e-mail to Axios.
- “Optum and Refresh Psychological Well being are excited to broaden efficient behavioral care to sufferers by a extra coordinated well being system. Collectively, we can drive deeper integration between medical and behavioral well being care and advance personalised care to sufferers by value-based care,” an organization spokesperson wrote.
Kelso declined to remark.
