What Is An Rvu And Why Is It Important

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.

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. 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. 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. The rvu is multiplied.

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. Medicare establishes the base reimbursement levels for cpt codes. Overview frequently asked questions answers 1 why is it important to understand how rvus function. The rvu is multiplied.

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. 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. Why are rvus important to understand. 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.

These resources include the physician s work the expenses of the. Medicare establishes the base reimbursement levels for cpt codes. Yet rvus will remain important because they are a metric that everyone can wrap their arms around says swanson. Each cpt code has a relative value unit rvu assigned to it.

Relative value units rvus january 12 2015 medicare uses a physician fee schedule to determine payments for over 7 500 physician services. 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. Each cpt code has a relative value unit rvu assigned to it. 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. 66984 rt rvu 20 85 line 2.