RVU costing in a medical group practice

As risk-and-reward reimbursement arrangements proliferate, medical group practices should use cost accounting to measure costs of services delivered by physicians. The resource-based relative value scale (RBRVS) is a method of determining physicians' fees on the basis of the various resources used to provide procedures or services. Two cost-per-procedure methods can be used in RBRVS cost accounting. One method uses relative value units (RVUs), and the other uses component RVUs, which comprise work, practice, and malpractice costs. Though the two methods produce different calculated costs, using both together can produce a cost range medical practice administrators can use to ensure that the costs of delivering services are reimbursed adequately.