In the last few years, the healthcare industry has experienced a record number of MA&A among specialty provider organizations serving consumers with complex conditions due to three key factors: enhanced attention on private equity platforms, greater payer focus on value-based care, and large quantities of corporate investment cash.
As organizations fight to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive market and rapidly shifting marketplace, many executives from specialty provider organizations are wondering if pursuing merger, acquisition, and affiliation (MA&A) could be their best option for long-term growth and sustainability.
The OPEN MINDS MA&A Learning Path was created to equip todayās leaders with big picture understanding of investment trends, critical insights on MA&A as a growth strategy, and the invaluable first-hand experience of executives and investors who know the ins and outs of MA&A in the specialty health care space.
The Future Of Private Equity In The Behavioral Health, Childrenās Services & I/DD Market Space
Don’t miss this dynamic panel discussion featuring industry experts keen on investment opportunities. Discover what priorities and interests have spurred investor spending, what private investors see as opportunities in the market space for providers and technology solution vendors, the investors’ view of the future landscape of specialty care, and tips for provider positioning and attractiveness.
Eric Strickland
Eric Strickland is Chairman and Founder of 3LS, Inc., a diversified, multi-company employee-owned organization focused on strengthening families and communities. With almost twenty-five years of human services experience, in 2015, Strickland founded 3LS as the parent of the Omni Family of Services, including Omni Visions, Omni Community Health and Omni Family Institute and 3LS Properties. In 2021, he founded and launched Omniās charitable foundation, The Omni Family Foundation. Following in 2022, he co-founded and launched SigBee and in 2023 he founded HopeNation Consulting and 3LS Ventures.Ā Ā He focuses on developing the long-term strategy and direction, leading innovative change, and building impactful relationships and partnerships to help keep kids, families and the communities they live in strong and healthy.
Eric started his career at the National Childrenās Advocacy Center in Huntsville, Alabama before joining Omni Visions in 2005 as Director of Finance, becoming CFO in 2009. He served as President & CEO of Omni Visions from 2011 to 2015. During his time with the Omni Family, he has founded eight new companies to ensure a comprehensive mix of social services and behavioral healthcare for the communities we serve as well as to ensure a strong ESOP retirement program for our employee-owners.
Strickland holds an MBA from The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and a bachelorās degree in economics from Shorter University in Rome, Georgia. He currently serves as a Chairman of 3LS Ventures, a board member for Sigbee, HopeNation Counseling, Nurture the Next, Middle Tennessee Council, BSA and as President of the Tennessee Center for Employee Ownership. He also serves Special Advisor for Empactful Capital and previously served as a board member and board president for the Family Focused Treatment Association, as a board member for CompuCare Management and Systems, Inc. and as an executive committee member with the ESOP Association of the New South.
Eric is a member of Franklin First United Methodist Church, is a proud Eagle Scout and is an active volunteer leader at the Council, District and unit levels with the Boy Scouts of America.
Steven Mason, M.Ed.
Steven is a Managing Partner and healthcare industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience starting and operating market-leading technology and services companies in the health and human services industries.
He has been instrumental in Fund Iās investments, including Care Continuity, where he recently served as CEO. Prior to serving as Executive Vice President at Iodine, Steven was the Chief Executive Officer at ChartWise Medical Systems, Inc., a computer-assisted clinical documentation system company that automated and improved the completeness and accuracy of physician documentation for faster and more optimal reimbursement of services provided. Iodine acquired ChartWise in 2021.
āPrior to his success with ChartWise, he led several successful start-up ventures including OnFocus Healthcare, a leading provider of web-based enterprise performance management software solutions for healthcare providers and payers. The company was acquired by MedeAnalytics, where he was Senior Vice President and General Manager of the EPM Business Unit. In this role, Steven was primarily responsible for integrating, managing, and growing the Mede Performance Management (MedePM) business unit within the broader MedeAnalytics portfolio.
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Additionally, he was Co-Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Qualifacts Systems, a SaaS based electronic medical records software provider, and Chief Operating Officer of Camelot Care Centers, a national behavioral healthcare provider organization.
Steven received his BA in History from the University of Mississippi and an M.Ed. Human and Organizational development / counseling from Vanderbilt University. Mr. Mason currently serves on the Board of Directors of several private digital health companies.
Ben Ross
Ben Ross is the Director of Growth at Seven Hills Capital, where he leads new platforms, M&A origination/development, organic growth, and strategic partnerships for the firm and its Partner Companies. Before joining Seven Hills, Ben worked for Ross & Company, a healthcare executive search firm serving private equity and venture capital sponsors. He previously served as Manager of Network Development at Contessa Health, a provider specializing in inpatient-level recovery care at home, an alternative to hospital stays. Ben began his career as an Analyst in Growth Strategy at The Advisory Board Company, a hospital and healthcare consulting firm that is now part of Optum.
Ben earned his B.A. in Economics and Corporate Strategy from Vanderbilt University. Outside of work, he actively participates in the Best Buddies’ Citizens program, advocating for social inclusion and facilitating one-to-one friendships for people with disabilities. In his down time, Ben enjoys refining his golf swing and enthusiastically supporting the Nashville Predators.
Monica E. Oss
Monica E. Oss, M.S. is the founder ofĀ OPEN MINDSĀ and serves as its chief executive officer, executive editor of its publications and websites, and executive lead of its consulting engagements. For the past three decades, Ms. Oss has led theĀ OPEN MINDSĀ team and its research on health and human service market trends and its national consulting practice. She is well known for her numerous books and articles focused on the strategic and marketing implications of the evolving health and human service field ā and its focus on the verticals of the field serving consumers with chronic conditions and complex support needs.
Ms. Oss has extensive experience in developing and implementing growth strategies for a wide array of organizations in the field. She has expertise in industry trend analysis, reimbursement and rate setting, and creating actionable plans for market success. In her role, she has led numerous engagements with state Medicaid plans, county governments, private insurers, and health plans, service provider organizations, technology vendors, neurotechnology and pharmaceutical organizations, and investment banking firms ā with a focus on the implications of financing changes on delivery system design.
Prior to founding OPEN MINDS, Ms. Oss served as an executive with a nationally managed behavioral health organization, responsible for market development, actuarial analysis, and capitation-based rate setting. She also held a position as vice president of the U.S. risk management and underwriting division of an international insurance company.
Ms. Oss has been the keynote speaker at the conferences of dozens of national associations and has been published in a wide range of professional journals and trade publications. She has provided Congressional and state legislative testimony on issues as diverse as the financial impact of parity and payer medication access policies.
Ms. Oss has led a range of industry research and consultation initiatives, serving as principal investigator on research projects that include the examination of national managed care enrollment and service patterns, development of provider rate structures for government entities, creation of return-on-investment models for technology investments; design of performance-based compensation models within public and private health plans; and analysis of the economic impact of changes in benefit design, adoption of evidence-based practices, and new technologies.
The State Of MA&A In Health Care
There were a record number of mergers, acquisitions, and affiliations occurring with organizations serving the complex consumer market in 2021 and 2022. And despite questions about whether that trend would continue in 2023, it appears that the pace has remained consistent. When we look at the data, we see that there is a lot of complexity in the consolidation market ā who are the players, and what trends are driving the increase in this strategy? This opening session of the summit will focus on:
- Understanding the categories of deals in the specialty provider market
- Market trends that are impacting players in all of the consolidation categories
- Discussion of deals that are changing the nature of the specialty provider market
Joseph P. Naughton-Travers, EdM
Joseph P. Naughton-Travers, EdM, Senior Associate, has more than 30 years of experience in the health and human service field. In this tenure as senior associate with OPEN MINDS since 1998, he has served as lead of dozens of client initiatives, served as editor of OPEN MINDS publications, and is the author of many groundbreaking articles and presentations.
Mr. Naughton-Travers brings to OPEN MINDS a broad range of experiences in private and public sector delivery of behavioral health and social services. He started his career as a behavioral health clinician, working in both child welfare and community mental health clinic settings. Subsequently, Mr. Naughton-Travers held a senior business operations management position for a psychiatric hospital system and its community mental health clinics. Later, he was vice president of a firm specializing in information systems and billing and receivables management for community-based mental health programs.
Since joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Naughton-Travers has developed business solutions for provider and professional organizations, state and county government, technology companies, and venture capital firms. His primary areas of expertise include strategic planning and metrics-based management, electronic health record (EHR) and technology selection and implementation, operations improvement, and corporate compliance. For the past decade, over half his consulting practice has focused on aiding organizations in technology selection and implementation, including all aspects of strategic technology planning, functional specifications development, request for proposal development, vendor selection, and contracting.
He has written numerous articles, including āWinning the Human Resource Wars: Tried, True and New Strategies for Behavioral Health and Social Service Organizations,ā āFive Pillars of Management Competency,ā āData Driven Decision Making: Moving to an Organizational Measurement Culture,ā āSurvival of the Smartest: What is Your Organizationās Information Literacy IQ?,ā and āStrategic Human Resource Management: Aligning Compensation with Employee Performance and Organizational Strategy.ā Mr. Naughton-Travers is also a nationally recognized speaker, having conducted hundreds of executive and professional executive training events around the nation.
Mr. Naughton-Travers received his Bachelorās degree from Miami University of Ohio and his Mastersā of Education in Counseling Psychology from Boston University.
Ken Carr
Ken Carr brings over 20 years of finance, technology, data analysis and reporting experience in the health and human service field to OPEN MINDS. Before joining the OPEN MINDS team, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of The Centers, a community mental health center in Ocala, Florida. In this position, Mr. Carr led a realignment of the organizationās financial management functions. This included revenue cycle management, EHR bill implementation and reporting, cash management enhancement, and strategic financial analysis.
Prior to his role at The Centers, Mr. Carr served as Chief Financial Officer of Guild Incorporated, an organization providing residential and community based mental health services in St. Paul, Minnesota. As CFO, Mr. Carr led the financial, billing, IT, quality, informatics, compliance, and facilities activities. During his tenure at Guild Incorporated, Mr. Carr used his expertise in change management and business process improvement to lead the EHR implementation team, align service data reporting and financial performance, and lead the financial and data capture activities for new service initiatives.
Mr. Carr has also held the positions of Administrative Director and Finance Director at the St. Paul National Testing Laboratory, a biomedical testing facility of the American Red Cross. In those positions he oversaw activities to enhance inventory management, align financial results to industry standards, and improve financial and facilities performance through problem analysis and quality management initiatives. He also was involved in directing human resource functions during laboratory closing near the end of his tenure.
Mr. Carr earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of South Dakota, and a Master of Divinity Degree from Sioux Falls Seminary. He maintains an active CPA license with the State of South Dakota.
Making Non-Profit Mergers Work ā A Best Practices Session
Mergers and acquisitions are increasingly common in health and human services but it doesnāt mean that most of them are successful. Across all industries, between 70% and 90% of M&A transactions fail, and a more recent analysis found that 10% of deals are cancelled after they are announced. When it comes to merger success, a strategic approach and robust planning process are essential ingredients.
Join our industry experts as they share their firsthand experience on what it takes to make mergers successful. Attendees will examine the critical components of an effective merger strategy, gain insights on how to best define merger objectives, and what to look for in the right partner. Then, explore the due diligence and pre-merger planning processes, and strategies for overcoming common obstacles during implementation.Ā Attendees will learn how to capitalize on the benefits of a well-constructed preparation process and strategies for actualizing merger objectives through an effective integration plan.Ā
During this session attendees will:
- Examine critical components of a successful merger strategy
- Discover key competencies for pre-merger planning and what it takes to āmake mergers workā
- Learn best practices for building an effective post merger integration plan and overcoming common challenges with implementation
Luanne Welch
Luanne Welch is President & CEO of Easterseals PORT Health, a leading disability, mental health & substance use service provider, committed to helping children, adults & their families across North Carolina and Virginia.
With 40 years of non-profit experience, Luanne is recognized as a turnaround leader, reorganizing financially challenged organizations and positioning them for sustained, healthy growth. In addition, she is skilled in portfolio management, service line mission and financial analysis, strategic execution, and the development of leadership talent. Mission driven, Luanne is passionate about fostering positive change, embracing access and opportunity in the workforce, and empowering leaders and teams to feel valued, safe, and heard.
Luanne is a successful relationship builder across all stakeholders including board, staff, volunteers, donors, public and private payers and community influencers. She serves as an Advisory Board Member for Open Minds, an Advisory Board Member for Becoming RentABLE, and Provider Council Member for Trillium Health Resources.
Joseph P. Naughton-Travers, EdM
Joseph P. Naughton-Travers, EdM, Senior Associate, has more than 30 years of experience in the health and human service field. In this tenure as senior associate with OPEN MINDS since 1998, he has served as lead of dozens of client initiatives, served as editor of OPEN MINDS publications, and is the author of many groundbreaking articles and presentations.
Mr. Naughton-Travers brings to OPEN MINDS a broad range of experiences in private and public sector delivery of behavioral health and social services. He started his career as a behavioral health clinician, working in both child welfare and community mental health clinic settings. Subsequently, Mr. Naughton-Travers held a senior business operations management position for a psychiatric hospital system and its community mental health clinics. Later, he was vice president of a firm specializing in information systems and billing and receivables management for community-based mental health programs.
Since joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Naughton-Travers has developed business solutions for provider and professional organizations, state and county government, technology companies, and venture capital firms. His primary areas of expertise include strategic planning and metrics-based management, electronic health record (EHR) and technology selection and implementation, operations improvement, and corporate compliance. For the past decade, over half his consulting practice has focused on aiding organizations in technology selection and implementation, including all aspects of strategic technology planning, functional specifications development, request for proposal development, vendor selection, and contracting.
He has written numerous articles, including āWinning the Human Resource Wars: Tried, True and New Strategies for Behavioral Health and Social Service Organizations,ā āFive Pillars of Management Competency,ā āData Driven Decision Making: Moving to an Organizational Measurement Culture,ā āSurvival of the Smartest: What is Your Organizationās Information Literacy IQ?,ā and āStrategic Human Resource Management: Aligning Compensation with Employee Performance and Organizational Strategy.ā Mr. Naughton-Travers is also a nationally recognized speaker, having conducted hundreds of executive and professional executive training events around the nation.
Mr. Naughton-Travers received his Bachelorās degree from Miami University of Ohio and his Mastersā of Education in Counseling Psychology from Boston University.
Investment In The Specialty Care Space: The Formula For Success
With over half of all mergers and acquisitions in the specialty health care market driven by private equity deals, their impact on the market is significant. And there have been a number of lessons learned as equity-funded organizations entered specialty markets and gained rapid growth, and faced a number of challenges ā stagnant rates, slow payer implementation of value-based agreements, and competition for staff. This session will feature insights from investors who have a deep understanding of specialty market opportunities and challenges.
Key takeaways of this session include:
- Opportunities for investment in specialty health care services
- Challenges that have impacted specialty provider organizations
- Advantages of establishing economic scale and adapting reimbursement models
Jonathan MorphettĀ
Jonathan Morphett joined Avondale Partners in 2004 to launch its healthcare investment banking group. Today, as an investment banking boutique firm, Avondale Partners provides mergers and acquisitions and financing transaction advisory services to healthcare companies and private equity firms across the U.S. Jonathan has over 30 years of investment banking experience, having completed over 100 M&A advisory, equity and debt transactions.
Prior to joining Avondale Partners, Jonathan was the Chief Financial Officer of Austar United Communications, a publicly traded Australian company, and a managing director of investment banking at Morgan Stanley. Jonathan is the Immediate Past Chair of the Board of Centerstoneās Institute. He is a former board member of the Nashville Health Care Council; a former board member of Friends Life, a non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of people with disabilities; and a ā2012 Health Care Heroā award recipient from the Nashville Business Journal. He earned his undergraduate degrees in economics and law from the University of Adelaide, Australia and his MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth.
Ryan Rhoads, LMCH
Ryan Rhoads is Director of Innovation Deployment, Complex Health at CareSource. Ryan is responsible for creating and lading the implementation of an overall Provider Transformation Strategy, including the Community of Innovation ā¢ and Project ECHOĀ® positioning CareSource as the innovative leader in partnering with complex health and HCBS providers to improve direct services delivery and quality of life for our Complex Health Members.
Ryan has extensive managed care experience with several national carriers supporting complex health populations. He has served as a leader of network and provider relations across multiple markets and lines of business, supporting provider operations and partnering with network providers to improve operations and develop meaningful services for members with I/DD, BH, LTSS, OUD and Foster Care needs. Most recently, leading an organizational redesign of provider relations focusing on provider support and proactive issue resolution through internal operational efficiency. Additionally, Ryan has experience in clinical and network health plan operations through leadership roles in business development, clinical health plan implementations, and pilot program development to support complex health populations through provider partnerships.
Prior to his career in managed care, he worked in direct practice in a community mental health center, serving the juvenile justice and child welfare populations. He also oversaw intensive home and community based service, lead the implementation and operations of a therapeutic foster care division and school based therapy services. He also served as the gatekeeper for juvenile behavioral health state hospital placements and was responsible for grant procurements to expand service delivery.
Ryan earned his bachelorās degree in psychology from Indiana Wesleyan University and a masterās degree in counseling psychology from Indiana State University. He is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) and resides in Indiana.
Ryan Kaczka
Ryan Kaczka is a seasoned private equity investor, investment banker, and operator with a specialization in leveraged buyouts, mergers and acquisitions, and de-novo companies. Mr. Kaczka has a track record of facilitating multiple exits, including IPOs and 9-figure all-cash acquisitions. With a primary focus on behavioral health, Ryan also spearheads investments in digital health, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and banking. With extensive experience in operations and leadership, he has served as CEO, COO, and board member of numerous companies. In 2018, he was recognized as the Tampa Spotlight CEO and named NJBIZ’s 2023 Healthcare Innovator of the Year.
Mr. Kaczka is a prominent figure on various boards, including portfolio companies, the Rutgers University Center for Addiction Studies, the White House/ONDCP Opioid Litigation Abatement Advisory, an international bank, and an international healthcare non-profit. He also serves as a personal advisor to numerous federal, state, and local leaders, including Senators, Congressmen, Committees, Governors, and Department leaders. With a passion for Muay Thai fighting, astrophysics, and advocating for national healthcare and banking reform, Mr. Kaczka brings a unique perspective to his work in the field. His expertise and accomplishments make him the go-to choice for private equity and M&A expertise.
Ken Carr
Ken Carr brings over 20 years of finance, technology, data analysis and reporting experience in the health and human service field to OPEN MINDS. He currently ia a Senior Associate with the OPEN MINDS consulting practice. In this role, he served as a subject matter expert in the OPEN MINDS consulting practice where he has led numerous engagements in strategic planning, merger and acquisition prospecting, business process improvement, financial analysis of service lines, and technology selection.
Before joining the OPEN MINDS team, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of The Centers, a community mental health center in Ocala, Florida. In this position, Mr. Carr led a realignment of the organizationās financial management functions. This included revenue cycle management, EHR bill implementation and reporting, cash management enhancement, and strategic financial analysis.
Prior to his role at The Centers, Mr. Carr served as Chief Financial Officer of Guild Incorporated, an organization providing residential and community based mental health services in St. Paul, Minnesota. As CFO, Mr. Carr led the financial, billing, IT, quality, informatics, compliance, and facilities activities. During his tenure at Guild Incorporated, Mr. Carr used his expertise in change management and business process improvement to lead the EHR implementation team, align service data reporting and financial performance, and lead the financial and data capture activities for new service initiatives.
Mr. Carr has also held the positions of Administrative Director and Finance Director at the St. Paul National Testing Laboratory, a biomedical testing facility of the American Red Cross. In those positions he oversaw activities to enhance inventory management, align financial results to industry standards, and improve financial and facilities performance through problem analysis and quality management initiatives. He also was involved in directing human resource functions during laboratory closing near the end of his tenure.
Mr. Carr earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of South Dakota, and a Master of Divinity Degree from Sioux Falls Seminary. He maintains an active CPA license with the State of South Dakota.
Trying To Do Something New? A Checklist For Taking Innovation To Market
It is no longer negotiable: Every health and human services organization needs a growth strategy. From organic growth of current services to intellectual property licensing to affiliation agreements, choosing the right growth strategy for your organization can be daunting.
Join Monica Oss, CEO and Founder at OPEN MINDS, for an exploration of tactical decision-making for executive teams to help them improve or develop new comprehensive strategic plans aligned with long-term organizational goals.
Monica E. Oss
Monica E. Oss, M.S. is the founder ofĀ OPEN MINDSĀ and serves as its chief executive officer, executive editor of its publications and websites, and executive lead of its consulting engagements. For the past three decades, Ms. Oss has led theĀ OPEN MINDSĀ team and its research on health and human service market trends and its national consulting practice. She is well known for her numerous books and articles focused on the strategic and marketing implications of the evolving health and human service field ā and its focus on the verticals of the field serving consumers with chronic conditions and complex support needs.
Ms. Oss has extensive experience in developing and implementing growth strategies for a wide array of organizations in the field. She has expertise in industry trend analysis, reimbursement and rate setting, and creating actionable plans for market success. In her role, she has led numerous engagements with state Medicaid plans, county governments, private insurers, and health plans, service provider organizations, technology vendors, neurotechnology and pharmaceutical organizations, and investment banking firms ā with a focus on the implications of financing changes on delivery system design.
Prior to founding OPEN MINDS, Ms. Oss served as an executive with a nationally managed behavioral health organization, responsible for market development, actuarial analysis, and capitation-based rate setting. She also held a position as vice president of the U.S. risk management and underwriting division of an international insurance company.
Ms. Oss has been the keynote speaker at the conferences of dozens of national associations and has been published in a wide range of professional journals and trade publications. She has provided Congressional and state legislative testimony on issues as diverse as the financial impact of parity and payer medication access policies.
Ms. Oss has led a range of industry research and consultation initiatives, serving as principal investigator on research projects that include the examination of national managed care enrollment and service patterns, development of provider rate structures for government entities, creation of return-on-investment models for technology investments; design of performance-based compensation models within public and private health plans; and analysis of the economic impact of changes in benefit design, adoption of evidence-based practices, and new technologies.