Avenues Recovery Center is continuing its growth through the acquisition of Valley Forge Medical Center in East Norriton, writes John George for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

Avenues Recovery Center was started by health care entrepreneur Hudi Alter in 2016. The goal was to address two main issues with substance abuse treatment.

He too often noticed patients being sent to private clinics in other states, which left them with no sponsor, meetings, or support systems back home.

He also saw a huge gap in the parity of treatment for patients with private insurance and those covered by Medicaid and Medicare.

He found the solution in community treatment centers that have high-end aesthetics and are large enough to accept both patients with commercial insurance and those on government-sponsored plans.

The acquisition of the East Norriton hospital brings its number of centers to nine across five states. The financial terms of that deal were not disclosed. Alter said he plans to keep all of the staff from the hospital.

“We will slowly bring in some of our operation styles and synergies,” he said. “We’ll tweak one thing at a time.”

Read more about the acquisition in the Philadelphia Business Journal.