Twenty years separate two major healthcare platforms built under the leadership of the same private equity veteran: Acadia Healthcare in 2005 and Altocare in 2025. These parallel ventures reveal consistent patterns in how fragmented healthcare markets can be transformed through focused consolidation, operational excellence, and patient-focused growth approaches.
The story begins with Acadia Healthcare, founded by Reeve Waud in 2005 as a startup platform focused on behavioral health services. Starting from a single facility, the company expanded through calculated acquisitions and organic growth to become one of the nation’s largest behavioral health systems. The transformation culminated in a successful IPO in 2011, just six years after inception. Today, Acadia operates over 240 facilities across 40 states and Puerto Rico, serving approximately 75,000 patients daily. Reeve Waud continues to serve as Chairman of Acadia’s board, maintaining oversight of the company he built from scratch.
Applying the Behavioral Health Blueprint to Home Care
Fast forward to 2024-2025, and Waud Capital Partners has launched Altocare, applying remarkably similar methods to the home healthcare sector. The platform began with the acquisition of Senior Helpers in March 2024, followed by MedTec Healthcare in April 2025. Like Acadia’s early days, Altocare combines established operators under a unified platform while maintaining their individual brand identities and operational strengths.
Kyle Lattner, Partner at Waud Capital Partners, articulated the investment thesis: “We strongly believe in the value of services that enable seniors to thrive independently and affordably in the comfort of their own homes.” This echoes the approach Reeve Waud took with Acadia, identifying underserved patient populations and building comprehensive care networks to meet their needs.
The market dynamics between behavioral health and home care share striking similarities. Both sectors feature significant fragmentation, with thousands of small operators lacking scale and resources. Both face complex regulatory environments requiring sophisticated compliance capabilities. Most importantly, both serve vulnerable populations where quality of care directly impacts outcomes and reimbursement. These parallels suggest that methods successful in behavioral health can translate effectively to home-based services.
The Executive Partnership Model
A distinctive element of both platforms involves partnering with experienced healthcare executives who bring operational expertise alongside investment capital. At Altocare, Steve Jakubcanin serves as Executive Chairman, bringing over 20 years of healthcare operating experience. This mirrors the leadership structure at Acadia, where Reeve Waud paired investment capital with seasoned management to drive growth.
Chris Graber, Partner at Waud Capital leading the firm’s healthcare investment team, emphasized this approach: “Our partnership with Senior Helpers is another key example of the Waud Capital strategy of matching experienced executive talent with industry-leading companies in sectors where we have deep conviction.” This executive-first philosophy has characterized Reeve Waud’s investments throughout his career, which spans over 500 company acquisitions since founding Waud Capital Partners in 1993.
Operational Excellence as Competitive Advantage
Both Acadia and Altocare prioritize operational improvements over financial engineering. At Acadia, Reeve Waud invested approximately $100 million in technology improvements to enhance patient care and safety. Similar investments in training, technology, and quality systems are underway at Altocare’s portfolio companies. This focus on operational excellence creates sustainable competitive advantages that persist beyond the typical private equity holding period.
The success metrics also correspond across both platforms. Acadia consistently performs 3-5 times better than CMS national benchmarks for key safety measures. Senior Helpers earned recognition on Fortune’s 2025 Best Workplaces in Aging Services list. These quality indicators matter increasingly as healthcare payment models shift toward value-based care, where outcomes determine reimbursement levels.
Long-Term Vision in Healthcare Investing
The twenty-year span between Acadia and Altocare demonstrates Reeve Waud’s long-term perspective on healthcare investing. Rather than chasing short-term trends, the focus centers on demographic certainties: aging populations, increasing prevalence of chronic conditions, and preference for community-based care over institutional settings. These macro trends provide decades of growth runway for well-positioned platforms.
As Altocare enters its growth phase, the Acadia precedent suggests a multi-year journey toward market leadership. The behavioral health platform took six years from founding to IPO, during which time it established operational excellence, achieved significant scale, and demonstrated sustainable growth. If Altocare follows a similar trajectory under Reeve Waud’s guidance, the platform could emerge as a defining force in home healthcare by decade’s end, potentially creating another public company leader in essential healthcare services.