Behavioral Health Acquisition Criteria Worksheet

Before you ask for introductions, make it easy to recognize a business your team is prepared to support. A useful acquisition brief explains both what you want to buy and how you expect it to run afterward.

Use this worksheet for an established behavioral health practice search, a single acquisition or a portfolio expansion. It is designed for investment firms, family offices, healthcare groups and growing practices. You set the financial thresholds and investment decisions with your qualified advisers; these prompts focus on the operating fit.

Copy the tables into your working document, download the blank worksheet or use the print option on this page. No form is required.

Write the search in one paragraph

Complete this before making a list of targets:

We are looking for [type of established business] serving [population or service focus] in [geography and delivery model]. We expect to support it through [our operating approach]. We can take on [defined operating work], and we need [capabilities that must already be in place]. Our timing is [timing], with [decision owner] leading the search.

If the paragraph could describe almost any healthcare business, narrow it. If it assumes your team can repair everything, check the capacity behind that assumption.

Define your criteria and the reason for each one

Use three labels: Required means a condition needs to be met before proceeding; Preferred means it helps but is open to discussion; Open means your team has not decided. Do not disguise an undecided criterion as flexibility.

Replace broad preferences with observable questions. “Strong leadership” might mean a named operating lead with defined decision authority and backup coverage. “Good systems” might mean staff can demonstrate the main workflow and explain how exceptions are handled. Your definition should reflect the business you intend to operate.

Name the work your team can take on

A search brief should explain your support capacity alongside your requirements. This helps distinguish a manageable operating project from a dependency your team cannot cover.

Add a responsible role and a realistic time commitment to each commitment. An available adviser is useful, but the business still needs someone who will carry the everyday work.

Decide what warrants a pause

Agree on questions that need resolution before your team proceeds. They may concern unclear leadership, unverified system access, major differences between reported and demonstrated workflows or a transition plan that relies on capacity you have not secured.

Keep these specific to your search. This is not a universal list of reasons to reject a practice.

Do not use a single score to hide a significant unknown. A practice can meet many preferences while leaving one required condition unresolved.

Give each potential match a next step

Use the same short record for every business considered. This makes it easier to explain why a conversation is moving forward or waiting for more information.

Label information as reported, observed or not yet verified. Do not infer that a business is available for sale because it matches the brief or appears in research. Availability and owner interest need a separate conversation.

When a practice progresses to review, use the therapy practice acquisition operational review guide to turn the search criteria into specific questions and evidence requests.

Prepare a brief you can share

Your introductory brief can contain:

1. Your firm or group and the role of the person leading the search.
2. The paragraph describing the business you are seeking.
3. Required criteria, preferred criteria and the decisions still open.
4. The operating support you can provide and the capacity you would need to add.
5. Your stage, timing and a clear next step.

Leave patient information, confidential target materials and sensitive transaction documents out of the first inquiry. Share additional information only through an agreed process with the right permissions and advisers involved.

Put the brief to work with Ludara

Ludara works with practice owners on the foundations of their businesses. We can consider potential introductions among clients we have helped build and strengthen when the owner is open to a sale or investment and there is a fit. We can also research additional businesses against your criteria.

Our behavioral health investor support can cover a defined target search, an operating review or work inside an existing portfolio. Tell us which part of the process needs support; your search does not have to begin with a transaction already identified.

For a single-practice search, see therapy practice acquisition support. Practice Ownership & Investment brings together the owner, buyer and investment-team pathways.