A Look Back at RPC in 2023 and Forward to 2024

RPC had a very good year in 2023, our 51^st in business. RPC continues to provide expert reports and testimony to plaintiff and defense attorneys in personal injury litigation, commercial litigation, and administrative proceedings. I am grateful to our clients, staff, and consulting associates. The numbers tell part of the story:

• We increased our staff from 39 at the end of 2022 to 45 at the end of 2023. We added Ph.D. and M.A. economists and a Ph.D. accountant.
• RPC provided services to 228 different clients in 2023, and 86 were new clients.
• New cases increased by over 20% from 963 in 2022 to 1,245 in 2023. Most of the growth was in cases analyzing reasonableness of charges and reasonable value of medical services. To process the increased volume of records and reports we added editors and records management staff.
• RPC issued 844 professional reports in 2023, an increase of 20% over 2022. We also issued 2,036 Section 18.001 counter affidavits, an increase of 35% over 2022.
• RPC consultants gave 87 expert depositions in 2023. The number of current RPC staff accepted as expert witnesses increased from 7 to 8.
• Most of our clients in commercial litigation cases were healthcare providers and health plans. We provided analysis and testimony in qui tam cases, in doctor /hospital disputes, in payment disputes involving out-of-network providers, and in disputes over the interpretation of provider contracts.
• We helped our Certificate of Need clients with 6 applications in North Carolina, Kentucky, and Georgia. Applications were approved in North Carolina and Kentucky, with other applications in North Carolina and Georgia still under consideration.
• We assisted a Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) provider with RFP responses in Oregon and Ohio. The PACE provider was approved to open three new PACE sites in Ohio.

We also offered more educational resources to attorneys. The effort included offering two continuing legal education webinars certified in Texas and Louisiana directly and through the State Bar of Texas. We plan to increase the number of webinars in 2024. We also added three new or updated whitepapers to our website.

Finally, RPC is devoting substantial resources to incorporating new technology to increase the quality and efficiency of our services. In 2024 we expect to start using proprietary medical bill review software to increase our capacity for medical bill review. We will also experiment with AI software to manage and summarize medical records and depositions.

Thanks again to all who have contributed to our long-term success. Please contact me (512.371.8166; rluke@rpcconsulting.com) or Roy Bourne (512.371.8026; rbourne@rpcconsulting.com) if we can help you or your clients.

Sincerely,

Ron Luke, JD, PhD
President