Hackensack Meridian Health, New Jersey’s largest med surg with 17 hospitals, has acquired one of the nation’s most venerable behavioral health and addiction care providers, Carrier Clinic of Belle Mead, NJ.
While there have been a number of behavioral health and med surg tie-ups in recent years, the Hackensack/Carrier deal clearly stands out as among the very most comprehensive and important, representing investments of many tens of millions over many years.
The hundred-year-old Carrier is already one of the most formidable addiction treatment competitors on the national stage, and is now set to become even more so with the Hackensack merger. As part of the deal, Hackensack has committed to making a big $25M facilities investment updating the Carrier campus in Northern New Jersey.
And using the Carrier brand, the first of a series of new NJ addiction centers is slated to open later this year, investment that is over and above the $25M Carrier campus commitment.
And furthering a trend that is rapidly gaining strength nationwide, Hackensack urgent care centers will shortly begin to offer fully integrated Carrier branded behavioral health and addiction care services as medical services providers seek to shed the “orphan” status that addiction treatment has typically held within the industry.
A multi-disciplinary team of experts including primary care physicians, psychiatrists, and advanced practice nurses will closely coordinate all needs – addiction treatment, routine care, mental health issues – to provide optimal treatment throughout the 17-hospital network.
