How are RVUs used to determine payment amounts?

• A. Use only Work RVU
• B. Divide RVUs by number of services
• C. Multiply all three RVUs by a Conversion Factor
• D. Add the three RVUs together and ignore factor

Answer: (C)

RVUs measure the resources required for a service in three areas: physician work, practice expense, and malpractice. The payment amount is found by converting the total RVU value into dollars with a conversion factor. In practice you add the three RVUs to get the total RVU for the service, then multiply by the conversion factor to determine the payment. Using only the work RVU, dividing by the number of services, or adding RVUs and ignoring the conversion factor don’t reflect how payments are set.