RVUs are a way to keep track of employed physicians to make a salary that is less than the direct revenue they generate.
This is reasonable if this is an employed physician as that physician cannot take home 100% of the revenue as there needs to pay overhead, the secretaries , support staff, medical supplies, etc.... but potential "scam" is when the senior partners are taking a cut from the revenue you generate because Godfather rules need tribute etc...
for private practice doctors who are self employed, doing a 99213 is $107.46 here in NYC accounting for copay, coinsurances, or if a secondary insurance/medicaid pays the 20%.
so seeing 10 patients for 99213 in theory generates $1074.60 in revenue
then you decide how to spend that on your staff, utlities, rent, overhead et c...
and pocket the rest
a 99213 generates 1.30 work RVUs
let's say some contract says (just randomly making stuff up)
if you generate 1,300 RVUs will pay you $50,000 for that.
well i just said 99213 is $107.46 so 1.30 RVU is about $140
so 1300 RVUs would in theory generate $140,000
not everyone fully collects on these things due to deductibles that patients don't pay, coinsurances that patients dont pay etc...
but the theoretical question is - would you be happy with doing $140,000 work and only getting $50,000?
this is all napkin math but hopefully this sets a frame of reference for your comparisons
CPT® | 2023 Work RVU | Total RVU |
---|
99213 | 1.30 | 2.68 |
99214 | 1.92 | 3.79 |
You could search up various CPT codes including your echos, stress tests, caths etc...
Overview This website is designed to provide information on services covered by the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS). It provides more than 10,000 physician services, the associated relative value units, a fee schedule status indicator and various payment policy indicators needed for...
www.cms.gov
then do some napkin math
okay if I did this may patients... this many echos etc.... in theory this is how much revenue I would generate if I were private practice and I collected all the money myself.
then see that ratio of work based on RVUs to whatever salary they give you seems "worth it to you."