Rich Appert is the Vice President of Admissions for Acadia Healthcare. In this role he oversees admissions operations for 584 programs and nearly 18,000 behavioral healthcare beds. After graduating from Rutgers College in 2003, he initially worked in the financial services industry before moving to healthcare shortly after the financial crisis in 2008. Rich’s experience has encompassed all aspects of hospital/facility front end operations including admissions and utilization review management, managed care contracting, hiring and development of Admissions Directors and their staff, support center design and oversight, as well as analytics and quality management. Rich has deep personal ties to his work and at the core of each of these competencies is an intense desire to improve access to care for all individuals in need of mental health or substance use disorder treatment.