What Is An Rvu Worth

Originally created as the principle unit of the rbrvs for cms rvus became the foundation of the medicare physician fee schedule mpfs as well as the basis of most commercial fee schedules.

What is an rvu worth.

The three rvus for a given service are each multiplied by a unique geographic practice cost index referred to as the gpci adjustment. One rvu is worth 35 8887 for 2017 according to this ama site. 77 of public and private payers are utilizing the rvu system first developed for medicare. According to this document on office of the federal registrar regarding cms 1631 p on table 60 near the bottom of the document the corrected 2016 rvu conversion factor for one rvu is 35 8043 not the previously reported 35 8279.

The use of rvus to valuate medical services reformed healthcare payment systems. 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. These resources include the physician s work the expenses of the. Basically relative value units rvus is a standard set by medicare to determine the amount to pay doctors depending on their productivity.

Prior to the implementation of the rbrvs in 1992 physicians set charge rates for the medical care they provided to patients. Being able to calculate rvus is an essential part of ensuring that physicians in a practice are paid accurately and fairly. Total rvus medicare 2020 physician fee schedule cpt code descriptors 2019 2020 final change from 2019 to 2020 92537 caloric vstblr test w rec bithermal 1 16 1 18 2 practice expense 0 53 0 56 6 professional component 0 90 0 practice expense pc 0 28 0 29 4 technical component 0 26 0 28 8 practice expense tc 0 25 0 27 8 physician. The geographically adjusted rvus are then multiplied by a conversion factor that converts the rvu into a dollar amount which determines the price that medicare or the hmo pays.

2018 rvu calculator mgma pensation and ion survey median gross charges for u s hospital census u s physicians dollars per rvu by specialty 2016 statistawork rvu pensation models best rate determination hsg advisorsphysicians work rvu by specialty u s. The work rvu calculator provides quick analysis of work relative value units associated with cpt and hcpcs level ii codes. This rvu conversion factor is in effect from january 1 2016 through. Relative value units rvus january 12 2015 medicare uses a physician fee schedule to determine payments for over 7 500 physician services.

They re a useful time saving way to handle physician payments but they require precise calculations. It is a number that defines the volume of work doctors perform when treating patients for all procedures and services covered under the physician fee schedule.