RVU and Census Based Payment for The NICU Physicians

The most common method for measuring physician productivity is the work relative value units (wRVU) used to determine reimbursement payments. The wRVUs are linked to the procedure, which has created a debate among procedural-based specialties." "Most billings in the NICU are done via bundled charges, so a NICU patient brings in a set number of RVUs each day, depending on the billing tier. As most of the billings are done during the day shift, night shift on-call physicians do not generate enough RUVs putting them at a productivity disadvantage." "The suggested model is fair for both administrators and physicians, as it considers the RVU, census, and workload measured by the level of CPT code and billing tier. It could be quickly adopted, and MS Excel (or any accounting program) could be used to generate the final payment based on RVU and census."94 NEONATOLOGY TODAYtwww.NeonatologyToday.nettMay