Before rvus were used medicare paid for physician services using usual customary and reasonable rate setting which led to payment variability the omnibus budget reconciliation act of 1989 enacted a medicare fee schedule and as of 2010 about 7 000 distinct physician services were listed.
What is rvu in healthcare.
These three rvu factors are then multiplied by a geographical adjustment that creates the compensation level for the service in that exact location.
He is an associate professor of clinical medicine at weill cornell medical college and attending physician in the department of hematology oncology at the new york presbyterian weill cornell medical center.
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.
Doru paul md is triple board certified in medical oncology hematology and internal medicine.
The use of rvus to valuate medical services reformed healthcare payment systems.
The services are classified under a nomenclature based on the current procedural.
Prior to the implementation of the rbrvs in 1992 physicians set charge rates for the medical care they provided to patients.
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.
These resources include the physician s work the expenses of the.
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.
Rvus should be a part of the discussion says swanson.
Relative value units rvus january 12 2015 medicare uses a physician fee schedule to determine payments for over 7 500 physician services.