Business Data & Benchmarks · United States
Outpatient Behavioral Health Center Revenue Benchmark
Centers providing outpatient mental health or substance abuse treatment, without overnight residential care.
Average Outpatient Behavioral Health Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census
The 2022 Economic Census counts every outpatient behavioral health center with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing one by the other gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment below.
≈$1,918,000 /year
Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment
15,976
Employer establishments in the United States, 2022
as published $30.6 billion
Combined annual gross revenue of employer establishments, 2022
How this is calculated: about $30.6 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 15,976 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $1,918,000 per employer establishment. Public programs and insurers pay for much of this care, so reimbursement rates shape the figure more than pricing does.
Scope: Outpatient Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers, NAICS 621420. Classified separately in group 6214: 621410 Family Planning Centers; 621491 HMO Medical Centers; 621492 Kidney dialysis centers, and 2 further codes. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.
Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed July 2026
Employer Establishments at Year Five Endpoint only
Outpatient Care Centers, NAICS 6214, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.
81.9%the year-five count as a share of the starting count
Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 65.3 to 81.9 percent. This benchmark covers Outpatient Care Centers, NAICS 6214, as a whole, and this category accounts for 15,976 of the 57,177 employer establishments in it. A count by age is not a survival rate, because the figures compare two headcounts rather than follow one set of businesses.
Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data
Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Annual payroll share of receipts, United States | ≈48% |
Payroll share of receipts, Outpatient Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.
Approximately 48.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, one of the higher shares on this site. Clinician time is the treatment, so there is little else for receipts to cover.
Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes, payments to clinicians engaged as contractors and owner compensation, which matters where much clinical work is contracted.
Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data
How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Paid employees per employer establishment | 19.1 |
| Employer establishments per firm | 1.66 |
Scale and ownership, Outpatient Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.
The average establishment employed about 19.1 people, and the industry counted 1.7 employer establishments per firm.
These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.
Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis
Outpatient Behavioral Health Center: the parts a ratio never shows.
Before you rely on this benchmark
- What is the payer mix? Medicaid, commercial insurance and self-pay reimburse very differently for the same session, and payer mix and volume both bear materially on the economics.
- What is the no-show rate? An unfilled appointment slot cannot be sold again once the time has passed, and no-shows can create recurring unused capacity.
- Are clinicians employed or contracted? Contracted clinicians do not appear in payroll, so the ratio on this page can describe administration more than treatment.
- How long is the waitlist? Demand exceeding capacity looks like success but shows up as unmet need rather than revenue, and waitlists and caseload pressure may contribute to staff strain.
- How is clinician burnout managed? Caseload pressure can contribute to clinician turnover, and replacing a licensed clinician may take months, reducing available capacity in the meantime.
- How is crisis demand absorbed? Urgent presentations can require same-day capacity, triage, flexible scheduling, telehealth or referral to an appropriate crisis service.
- Is the treatment mental health, substance abuse or both? The Census category covers both. Substance abuse programs carry different licensing, different lengths of treatment and often different funding streams, so a center weighted toward one is not comparable to a center weighted toward the other.
Explore More on BusinessNES
Neighbouring benchmark pages built from the same verified data, plus BusinessNES guides on the same subject.
Data Source Notice
This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.
Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.
Sources and Methodology
Revenue, establishment counts, payroll, employment and firm counts on this page come from the 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics, published by the US Census Bureau. Averages and shares are BusinessNES calculations from those published totals, and each one names the two figures it divides.
The Census counts employer establishments, meaning each staffed clinic rather than each organization or program.