What Is Rvu In Medical Billing

Relative value units in medical billing in medical billing claims are submitted to generate reimbursement and that reimbursement depends on relative value units.

What is rvu in medical billing.

In medical billing patients or insurance companies submit claims to assist in reimbursement. Rather rvus define the value of a service or procedure relative to all services and procedures. This measure of value is based on the extent of physician work clinical and nonclinical resources and expertise required to deliver the healthcare service to patients. Rvus or relative value units do not directly define physician compensation in dollar amounts.

The current conversion factor for 2020 is 36 0896. 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. Physician work rvu including the time and clinical skill necessary to treat a patient during an encounter. What is an rvu in medical billing.

In a way the relative value units are used to define the volume of work performed by the doctor while providing medical care to patients. The rvu is made up of three components which include the physician work the practice expense totals and malpractice. The purpose of rvu in medical billing is to determine the value of a doctor s productivity. Rvus are part of rbrvs resource based relative value scale.

The three component rvus are. The total rvu then gets multiplied by the medicare conversion factor. It is critical to medicare medicaid and commercial health insurance reimbursements. The rvu calculation results are based on the values supplied by cms in the 2020 national physician fee schedule relative value file.

The importance of rvus work rvus are the most frequently utilized component of the resource based relative value scale rbrvs. Basically relative value units rvus is a standard set by medicare to determine the amount to pay doctors depending on their productivity. This reimbursement is dependent on rvus which stands for relative value units. There are several factors that affect the amount that will actually be reimbursed.

The services offered by the doctor are calculated using the rvu so as to pay him her for the services. These are the measure of value for physician services used in us medicare. Medicare has established an rvu relative value unit for every cpt code to determine reimbursement amounts. Rvu stands for relative value units.

Here we are focusing on the physician work rvu. Every cpt code used in billing is assigned a specific wrvu. Total rvu based compensation requires paying a doctor dependent on the type and amount of work they do in treating a patient. The wrvu then gets added to the other two rvus practice expenses and insurance.