Academic Consulting Advisors
Building and Sustaining Future-Ready Graduate Medical Education Initiatives

Behind every successful venture lies visionary leadership. Founded by Jim Brown and Mike Benck, Academic Consulting Advisors (ACA) is a boutique healthcare consulting firm dedicated to serving diverse healthcare entities, including academic medical centers, large healthcare systems, community hospitals, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), and faculty practice plans.

With a shared passion for addressing the complex challenges faced by academic medical centers, the founders and their team set out on a mission to build a consulting company specifically tailored to meet the distinct needs of graduate medical education in the twenty-first century as the nation faces physician shortages and increased healthcare disparities. ACA brings a wealth of expertise that empowers teaching institutions to advance their academic mission while enhancing financial sustainability by supporting their clients for success in this ever-changing environment.

Taking a holistic approach, ACA develops system-wide academic strategies designed to align with the organization’s mission while providing tailored recommendations for stakeholders in the areas of financial management, resource allocation, and organizational structure. The company offers a comprehensive range of services, including strategic planning, developing and implementing innovative graduate medical education (GME) models, and performance improvement through optimizing operational and financial performance for existing academic programs.

GME economics can be highly complex, involving multiple funding sources, government regulations, and ACGME training standards. ACA’s team helps healthcare organizations navigate these complexities and optimize their graduate medical education investment.

Resident training in academic medical centers is funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); however, the funding to expand resident training is often capped, leading to alternative sources to meet the growing demand for primary care. To assist these health systems in developing and improving their GME operations, ACA helps them stay informed about the latest CMS regulations and Medicare GME reimbursement pathways. They offer crucial guidance in program development and expansion, allowing healthcare organizations to focus on education and patient care.

In recognition of a market shift, ACA has enhanced its focus on GME growth and expansion, responding to a significant industry need. Historically, national health systems typically comprised of community-based hospitals have avoided GME programs due to the perception that teaching hospitals were costly and inefficient. The required academic infrastructure seemed unachievable for community-based hospitals, which now represent a significant percentage of those hospitals able to start and be reimbursed for new programs. Additionally, community hospitals tend to be ideally suited to develop primary care programs that can eliminate health care disparities in their community.

James Brown, principal at ACA, stated, “Our industry expertise, strategic insight, and client-focused approach position us as a trusted partner for academic and non-academic teaching centers alike to leverage GME for addressing physician shortages and support underserved communities.”

In a notable example, ACA supported a large national health system developing and implementing a GME expansion strategy to add 500 residents to the national network. This expansion was created to contribute significant economic value to the system through improved reimbursement, grant support, reduced recruiting costs, and enhanced clinical capacity. Multiple organizations undertook similar strategies to improve academic economics and extend their primary care capabilities.

Beyond collaborating with traditional teaching programs to evaluate their structure and performance, ACA has worked with Federally Qualified Healthcare Systems FQHCs and Critical Access Hospitals (CHS) to develop strategies to address shortages in primary care specialties (family medicine and internal medicine and behavioral health). Over the last five years, these healthcare organizations have increased their participation in GME by 45%. ACA provides comprehensive consulting services, including needs assessments, feasibility studies, financial modeling, and implementation planning tailored to these client’s unique objectives and constraints. The goal is to extend their primary care capabilities into rural communities and underserved markets, addressing critical shortages within the community while achieving maximum value and quality patient care from their GME investments.

Designing future models that support medical education enables clients to enhance the value of academic initiatives within the organization. Medical students on their journey through residency will also benefit by having broader access to high-value, coordinated care models—shaping the future of healthcare education and delivery.