Plenty of the behavioral health hospitals tied to Acadia Healthcare don’t carry the Acadia name on the door. Acadia often builds them with nonprofit health systems and runs them under the partner’s brand. Henry Ford Hospital, Geisinger Health System and Nebraska Methodist Health System are among those partners.
Reeve Waud, who founded Acadia in 2005 and chairs its board, has overseen the company as joint ventures became a regular part of how it grows. Projects in Iowa, Florida and Pennsylvania show what that looks like on the ground.
Council Bluffs, Iowa
Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital and Acadia announced a 96-bed hospital in Council Bluffs in July 2023. They committed more than $55 million between them, and Methodist pointed to a shortage of over 300 inpatient behavioral health beds across Iowa and Nebraska. Twenty-four of the 96 beds are set aside for kids and teens.
“This partnership allows us to better achieve our goal of a holistic approach to health care and continue leading public health efforts in the region,” said Pat Ahrens, MD, the hospital’s chief medical officer. Chris Hunter, Acadia’s CEO at the time, said: “Methodist shares our commitment to expanding access to high-quality behavioral health services and to transforming the way mental health patients are seen and cared for.”
It opened in the second quarter of 2026.
Florida and Pennsylvania
Iowa’s opening came in the same quarter as a 144-bed joint venture hospital in Florida, which Zacks named as a project with Orlando Health. Together they added 240 licensed beds in three months. Acadia’s 2022 joint venture facility in Knoxville, Tennessee, is an earlier example of the model.
Pennsylvania produced a national award. Geisinger Behavioral Health Center Northeast, in Moosic, won the Joint Commission’s first Care Team Award, Acadia announced October 5. Joint Commission President and CEO Jonathan B. Perlin, MD, PhD, said that year’s honorees “inspire us to think bigger, strive higher and accelerate progress across the care continuum.”
What Acadia’s Leaders Say
“As the largest stand-alone behavioral healthcare company in the U.S., and with joint venture partnerships with deeply respected health systems across the country, the Company is poised for long-term success,”Debbie Osteen said when she rejoined Acadia as CEO in January.
Reeve Waud’s statement that day credited the prior CEO with having “added new facilities developed with trusted joint venture partners.” Acadia, under Reeve Waud’s chairmanship, operated in 40 states and Puerto Rico as of June 30, with about 12,600 beds.
