Research & Planning Consultants, LP (RPC), was founded in 1972 in Austin, Texas. The founder was Ron Jones, an economist and former Planning Director for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission. The firm’s initial focus was environmental and land use policy. Its first major contract came in 1974, when the Texas General Land Office selected RPC as the primary contractor for the Texas Coastal Management Program (TCMP). Through the TCMP, RPC advanced its expertise in economic, demographic, and ecological analysis and in public policy development.

Ron Luke, JD, PhD, joined RPC as Vice President of Operations in 1976. When the TCMP contract ended in 1979, he bought the company and became its president. Building on its TCMP experience, RPC developed socioeconomic impact models used in environmental impact statements and in litigation by corporations in the oil and gas, mining, refinery, public utility, and pipeline industries. RPC did similar work for local, state, and federal water resource agencies.

In 1980, RPC worked on its first Certificate of Need (CON) project for a national hospital corporation. CON projects used many of the same economic and demographic skills RPC had developed in environmental projects. CON also used the health planning knowledge Dr. Luke had gained in his doctoral work at the Harvard Kennedy School. Success with this first project led to relationships with several national healthcare development companies and allowed RPC to develop a national CON practice. The firm has prepared applications in over 30 states and has provided expert testimony in most of those. The applications have been for new acute care hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, hospital expansions, ambulatory surgery centers, radiation therapy centers, imaging equipment, cardiac catheterization laboratories, hospices, home health agencies, and other health services. RPC continues to have an active national CON practice.

In the 1990s, the knowledge of the healthcare system gained through CON work and through Forte, a sister company, allowed RPC to provide economic testimony in healthcare litigation and administrative proceedings. RPC’s first work analyzing medical fee disputes broadened to include work on hospital/physician disputes, business interruption litigation, provider contract disputes, False Claims Act litigation, and Prompt Pay Act litigation. These cases come from many states and are an active service line for RPC.

Since 2000, RPC has built a substantial practice providing expert analysis of damages in personal injury litigation. RPC has built a staff of economists, life care planners, vocational consultants, coders, and legal nurse consultants who provide a full range of damage calculations. This practice includes analysis of past and future medical care for reasonableness of charges and reasonable value.

RPC had one of its best years ever in 2022, growing 20 to 30 percent on most metrics.

RPC is grateful to its clients, staff, and consulting associates. These numbers tell part of the story:

  • RPC staff increased from 32 at the end of 2020 to 39 at the end of 2022
  • New cases increased from 518 in 2020 to 732 in 2021 and to 963 in 2022. Most of the growth was in cases analyzing reasonableness of charges and reasonable value of medical services.
  • RPC consultants gave 77 expert depositions and testified 10 times in 2022. Most cases settled before trial.
  • RPC provided services to 223 different clients in 2022, and 77 were new clients.
  • RPC helped CON clients with 10 applications in Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, and Washington, DC. Applications were approved in Alabama, Tennessee, and Washington, DC, with applications in North Carolina, Florida, and Alabama still under consideration.

As RPC starts our next 50 years, we look forward to serving our clients with accurate, relevant, and timely analysis.