The appointment of Dr. Edith A. Perez as Chief Medical Officer of Cornerstone Specialty Network represents the culmination of an ambitious 18-month consolidation strategy that transformed four separate healthcare companies into a unified platform serving over 1,500 providers. This achievement demonstrates Reeve Waud’s systematic approach to healthcare consolidation—a playbook refined through three decades of building market-leading platforms.
The Provider Network Holdings creation story reveals how Waud Capital Partners executes complex roll-up strategies while maintaining clinical excellence and operational efficiency.
The Four-Company Integration Strategy
Waud Capital Partners assembled Provider Network Holdings through the strategic combination of Altus Biologics, Remedy GPO, Cornerstone Specialty Network, and Health Coalition Inc. Each company brought complementary capabilities: Altus provided biologic supply chain services, Remedy operated group purchasing functions, Cornerstone delivered oncology network aggregation, and Health Coalition offered specialty pharmaceutical distribution.
This wasn’t random acquisition activity. Reeve Waud’s team identified gaps across the specialty care value chain and systematically acquired companies that could create a comprehensive platform. The result spans multiple specialties including oncology, neurology, rheumatology, gastroenterology, allergy, immunology, pulmonary, and infectious disease practices across 41 states.
The integration required careful coordination to avoid disrupting existing provider relationships while creating new synergies. Each acquired company maintained its brand and leadership structure initially, allowing for gradual integration rather than forced consolidation.
Lessons from Acadia Healthcare’s Success
Reeve Waud’s consolidation expertise stems from his experience building Acadia Healthcare from a startup concept in 2005 to a public company operating over 260 facilities by 2011. That experience taught valuable lessons about scaling healthcare networks while maintaining quality standards.
Acadia Healthcare’s growth strategy combined organic expansion with strategic acquisitions, creating a behavioral health platform that achieved economies of scale while preserving local operational excellence. The company’s success—and Waud’s continued role as Chairman—demonstrates his ability to build sustainable healthcare platforms rather than short-term financial plays.
The Provider Network Holdings strategy applies similar principles to specialty care consolidation. Rather than pursuing rapid integration that could disrupt patient care, Waud Capital Partners focused on creating shared services and operational efficiencies while allowing individual practices to maintain their clinical autonomy.
The Network Effect Creates Competitive Advantages
Operating across 1,500 provider partners generates significant bargaining power with pharmaceutical manufacturers, medical device companies, and other suppliers. This scale allows independent specialty practices to access pricing and services typically available only to large health systems.
The network also creates opportunities for clinical collaboration and data sharing that individual practices cannot achieve alone. Dr. Perez’s appointment as Chief Medical Officer positions her to leverage this scale for clinical research and evidence-based practice improvements across the entire network.
According to the press release, “Provider Network Holdings supports a deep network of over 1,500 provider partners across multiple physician specialties with a comprehensive suite of practice management, supply chain, group purchasing, and pharmaceutical solutions for specialty and biologic drug needs.”
The platform’s scale enables Provider Network Holdings to serve as a valuable partner to pharmaceutical manufacturers launching new specialty drugs, while offering community-based practices the resources needed to remain competitive with hospital-owned clinics.
This consolidation playbook—refined through Reeve Waud’s experience with Acadia Healthcare and other platforms—demonstrates how private equity can create value through strategic combination rather than financial engineering alone.
Related: Waud Capital Partners Celebrates 30 Years of Partnership
