Impact Advisors Buys Consulting Firm With Payer Focus

Healthcare management consulting firm Impact Advisors has acquired First Quadrant Advisory, a strategy and operations consulting firm specializing in the healthcare payer market. 

Impact Advisors said the acquisition would allow it to enhance its mission to improve the business and delivery of healthcare by offering comprehensive, value-driven solutions to both payer and provider organizations.

“Bringing the First Quadrant Advisory team into our fold enables us to further our advancement as a full-service, top-tier consulting firm that can help even more healthcare clients solve their pressing challenges,” said Sandeep Sabharwal, managing partner at Impact Advisors, in a statement. “The culture that Vijay Murugappan and his team have developed mirrors what we’ve instilled at Impact Advisors, which is important to us. We look forward to having them become part of our company.”

Impact Advisors was founded in 2007 by Andrew and Peter Smith and a handful of colleagues who had worked together previously as consultants and in executive roles at health delivery organizations. In 2019, Impact Advisors entered a strategic partnership with Chicago Pacific Founders (CPF), a certified WBE (Women’s Business Enterprise) investment firm focused on healthcare services and caring for aging populations.

First Quadrant Advisory offers services such as product design, value-based care, cost-of-care improvement, digital health, operational efficiency, sales and channel optimization, Rx transformation, and core systems modernization. The firm was recognized as a Top 15 “Best Small Firm to Work For” by Consulting Magazine and established a 501c3 nonprofit business unit, FQA Institute for Social Impact, to design and scale solutions in support of people with substance use disorder.

“My team and I cannot be more delighted to be part of Impact Advisors. Together, we are now able to help clients by augmenting our existing deep payer expertise with the scale of Impact Advisors’ global capabilities in AI/analytics, technology modernization, business transformation, and process automation,” said Vijay Murugappan, managing partner and CEO of First Quadrant Advisory, in a statement. “Furthermore, as a portfolio company of the healthcare private equity firm, Chicago Pacific Founders, we can learn from our sister companies’ experiences in site-of-care innovation, global capitation, care coordination and behavioral health solutions. Most importantly, joining another founder-led company and observing the warm and people-centered culture, I feel confident that the combined teams will continue to collaborate with each other and serve our clients in a manner they have come to expect from us.”