Whats An Rvu

Here we are focusing on the physician work rvu.

Whats an rvu. The wrvu then gets added to the other two rvus practice expenses and insurance. By entering the appropriate code and number of units associated with it you will receive the total work rvus and individual work rvu value for that code. The total rvu then gets multiplied by the medicare conversion factor. Relative value units or rvus are the foundation of the criteria used to measure any type of medical services offered by physicians in the united states.

In this post we take a closer look at how rvus work how they relate to provider productivity what the pros and cons are of their use and how. The relative value unit serves as a means of determining the level of reimbursement that is awarded to a physician in exchange for services rendered. Together they become the total rvu. The work rvu calculator provides quick analysis of work relative value units associated with cpt and hcpcs level ii codes.

It is for this reason that rvu s do not have to be sole basis of the compensation formula. The federal government created the resource based relative value scale rbrvs which assigned each cpt current procedure terminology code a value. The rvu is made up of three components which include the physician work the practice expense totals and malpractice. For example if a diagnostic colonoscopy is provided in the physician s office the physician s payment would be based on a practice expense rvu of 6 78.

This is standard regardless of the cpt code. When calculating a relative value unit rvu it s easy to become overwhelmed by the math. Every cpt code used in billing is assigned a specific wrvu. Relative value units or rvus were created by the federal government in 1992 in an attempt to standardize physician payments.

However if you can look beyond the calculations you ll find that the rvu is actually a good barometer of practice efficiency and patient complexity and it can provide helpful insights into performance says andy swanson vice president of consulting services at the medical group management. Also the 30 second fast forward and the 10 second rewind functions used to zip back and forth through commercials sometimes get confused and lock stuff up. The rvu rbrvs system was created to bring more uniformity to medicare s reimbursement systems while also trying to control escalating medical spending in an era when reimbursements are in decline. The current conversion factor for 2020 is 36 0896.

This factor which is called wrvu represents a neutralized manner of comparing and quantifying the productivity of doctors because it eliminates several variables. If the procedure is performed in a facility the payment would be based on a practice expense rvu of 1 94. The rvu model rewards efficiency but not necessarily quality. Another potential drawback of the rvu method is the creation of rvus by physicians who over utilize tests or procedures to drive up the rvu s.