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Strategic Advisor·Behavioral Health

Kevin Taggart

Managing Partner, Behavioral Health Practice Lead at Mertz Taggart

Fort Myers, Florida, USA

KT
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Why they matter

Co-founder and behavioral health practice lead at Mertz Taggart, the most-quoted specialist advisor tracking U.S. behavioral health M&A deal flow and pricing.

Background

Kevin Taggart, CM&AP, is co-founder and Managing Partner of Mertz Taggart, a Fort Myers-based healthcare M&A advisory firm he built with Cory Mertz into one of the most active sell-side shops in home health, home care, hospice, and behavioral health, with 160+ completed transactions since 2006. Before founding Mertz Taggart in 2014, Taggart founded a land development and home-building company and was co-owner of a home care company that he grew and sold to a large publicly traded acquirer in 2010. He now leads the firm's behavioral health practice and authors its widely cited quarterly Behavioral Health M&A Report.

Notable deals

  • 2020
    Served as exclusive sell-side advisor to Cielo House, a Bay Area eating disorder treatment provider, on its sale to Refresh Mental Health
  • 2024
    Mertz Taggart served as financial advisor to First Steps Recovery on its growth investment from Avesi Partners
  • 2025
    Authored and was quoted throughout Mertz Taggart's Q1 2025 Behavioral Health M&A Report, the firm's flagship quarterly market analysis tracking deal volume across psych, ABA, and SUD
  • 2026
    Selected as faculty/moderator for the Treatment Center Investment & Valuation Retreat session on building behavioral health platforms

Call-prep brief

Kevin Taggart — Managing Partner, Mertz Taggart

Background

  • Co-founded Mertz Taggart in 2014 with Cory Mertz after building and selling a home care company (2010) and running a land development/home-building business.
  • Leads the firm's behavioral health practice within a boutique shop that has closed 160+ healthcare deals since 2006, concentrated in addiction treatment, mental health, ABA/autism, and I/DD.

Current focus

  • Publishes and is quoted in Mertz Taggart's quarterly Behavioral Health M&A Report, the closest thing the sector has to a real-time pricing barometer.
  • Actively sourcing sell-side mandates in psych hospitals, ABA, and outpatient mental health, where he's noted rising buyer demand but thinner seller supply in 2025.

What he cares about

  • Deal quality over volume — he's publicly skeptical of "deal slump" narratives and instead tracks multiple compression, buyer financing costs, and platform consolidation trends.
  • Founder/operator empathy — his own exit experience shapes how he prepares sellers for process and valuation.

Recent moves

  • Sell-side advisor on First Steps Recovery's 2024 investment from Avesi Partners; continues quarterly market commentary through 2025.

Sensitivities

  • As an active sell-side advisor, he may be cautious discussing live mandates or naming buyers/valuations outside his published reports; frame questions around market trends rather than specific undisclosed deals.

Questions to ask

  1. Which behavioral health subsectors (ABA, psych hospitals, SUD, outpatient mental health) are seeing the most buyer appetite right now, and where is supply genuinely constrained?
  2. How are interest-rate-driven financing costs affecting strategic buyers' willingness to pay full multiples in 2026?
  3. What separates a platform that commands a premium multiple from one that struggles to find a buyer in today's market?

Outreach draft

Subject
Behavioral Health M&A Trends — Quick Call?
Hi Kevin, I've been following Mertz Taggart's quarterly Behavioral Health M&A reports and your recent commentary on buyer demand outpacing seller supply in psych and ABA. We're doing diligence on the behavioral health rollup space and would value your read on where multiples and deal structures are heading over the next few quarters, particularly in addiction treatment and outpatient mental health. Would you have 20-30 minutes in the next week or two for a call? Happy to work around your schedule, and glad to compensate for your time through your usual expert network arrangement. Thanks for considering it, [Placeholder Name]

Linked companies

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