What Is An Rvu And Why Is It Important

Medicare establishes the base reimbursement levels for cpt codes.

What is an rvu and why is it important.

If your salary and compensation depend upon wrvus it will be stated in your physician contract. Medicare establishes the base reimbursement levels for cpt codes. The rvu is multiplied. 2 2 what is an rvu.

The fee for each service depends on its relative value units rvus which rank on a common scale the resources used to provide each service. Why are rvus important to understand. Relative value units have also proven statistically valid as key performance indicators serving a vital role in budgeting expense allocation cost benchmarking and productivity measurements. Overview frequently asked questions answers 1 why is it important to understand how rvus function.

In gaining an understanding of work relative value units wrvus it is important to understand the function of wrvus in qualifying physician productivity and in turn physician compensation. The number of rvus credited relates directly to the cpt codes and those relate to what s on the chart dr. These resources include the physician s work the expenses of the. Each cpt code has a relative value unit rvu assigned to it.

66984 rt rvu 20 85 line 2. Rvus with answers that explain concepts important to physicians evaluating their contracts and to employers considering the performance metrics by which they evaluate and compensate physicians. Since cpt 66170 has higher rvu the claim should have been billed with cpt 66170 rt on the first line and 66984 59 rt on the second line. The rvu is multiplied.

Understanding rvus can be complex but it s important to know at the very least the basics of how this type of compensation is determined. I think we ve over emphasized their importance over the past 10 years because of their alignment with compensation but that doesn t mean that it s not an important metric to examine your. 66170 59 rt rvu 32 13 the payer processed the claim with a 50 reduction on the second line item and made a total payment of 1335 24. Relative value units rvus january 12 2015 medicare uses a physician fee schedule to determine payments for over 7 500 physician services.

Serious procedures require a higher level of time skill and intensity compared to a typical well patient visit which means they would yield a higher rvu. But rvu data is only as reliable as an organization s medical coding.