The story behind the Assured Healthcare Partners & Allied Digestive Health deal
Investing firm Assured Healthcare Partners and West Long Branch, N.J.-based Allied Digestive Health struck a deal Jan. 13.
Matt Jameson, managing director of Assured Healthcare Partners, and Bob Gialanella, MD, president and CEO of Allied Digestive Health, elaborated on the deal and offered insights into the platform’s future.
Note: Responses were edited for style and content.
Question: With several private equity-backed gastroenterologist platforms in the space, how will you stand out from the competition?
Matt Jameson: ADH has always been a physician-centric organization with high quality standards. ADH’s partnership model will continue to help high-quality gastroenterologists in New Jersey and surrounding states focus on providing the best possible clinical care.
Q: Three years down the road, what does the AHP/Allied partnership look like?
MJ: We expect the culture of ADH to stay the same. The company intends to grow by continuing to add leading gastroenterologists who value working in an independent environment with the support of a sophisticated management services organization dedicated to adding value to its physician partners.
Q: Why did ADH seek out an investor for your practice?
Dr. Bob Gialanella: ADH came together in 2015 through the merger of five leading practices in central New Jersey. Since then, we’ve added one or more practices each year. Our new partner physicians saw significant economic and lifestyle improvements. We wanted to accelerate our growth, so we considered all of the options. We determined that a partnership with a highly resourced and flexible PE firm with growth and operational expertise was, by far, the most compelling option to capture the market opportunity.
Q: How will you use the investment in your practice?
BG: Our partnership with AHP should greatly accelerate our growth by allowing us to ramp up our already sizable investments in cutting-edge clinical care, research, talent, IT systems and data analytics to support our continued progression to value-based care.
Q: When considering the deal, what was the most important element you needed to know was secure before closing it?
BG: For us, it is all about trust and relationships. We wanted a partner who would not just provide capital to allow us to achieve our vision, but also help us scale operations and enhance our service delivery and stakeholder partnerships. In AHP, we found the experience, partnership mindset and the right philosophy to achieve these goals.