Anyone else facing RVU requirement increases? Is this normal?

[zeppelinpage4]

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I'm trying to find some definitive info. on this but last year I was told I need to generate 4900 RVUs annually to meet my base income. This year my employer wants to increase that to 5825 RVUs annually without any change in my pay. My employer is saying that the requirement of 5825 is equivalent to my current 4900 when converting to 2022 CMS wRVU values, so I assume this means if I see the same volume of patients and do the same work as last year, instead of generating 4900, I will generate 5925 RVUs instead. Anyone else aware of this change? I'm already overwhelmed with our volumes/workload so I want to make sure this RVU requirement increase is truly equivalent and not my employer findings ways to increase my work even more or pay me less. I spoke to other doctors at my office but they're contracts aren't ending for another few years (older physicians who joined much before me) and I was told no one is changing their RVU requirements yet...so it's just me for now which has me second guessing this change.

 

[SurfingDoctor]

I'm trying to find some definitive info. on this but last year I was told I need to generate 4900 RVUs annually to meet my base income. This year my employer wants to increase that to 5825 RVUs annually without any change in my pay. My employer is saying that the requirement of 5825 is equivalent to my current 4900 when converting to 2022 CMS wRVU values, so I assume this means if I see the same volume of patients and do the same work as last year, instead of generating 4900, I will generate 5925 RVUs instead. Anyone else aware of this change? I'm already overwhelmed with our volumes/workload so I want to make sure this RVU requirement increase is truly equivalent and not my employer findings ways to increase my work even more or pay me less. I spoke to other doctors at my office but they're contracts aren't ending for another few years (older physicians who joined much before me) and I was told no one is changing their RVU requirements yet...so it's just me for now which has me second guessing this change.

I mean, most places have some minimum RVU expectation per FTE. Likewise, while the RVU should be benchmarked, what the organization feels is minimum is likely just somewhat made up based on relative norms.

We have RVU percentiles but it’s different for salaried shift work because you can’t create hospitalized patients. That being said, we still have RVUs tied to incentive bonuses. But again, the organization does what they want with those bonuses. When times are good and they feel like paying them, they do. When times aren’t so go… no soup for you. Given the systemic issues of financial crunches nationwide… I’m not banking on getting any soup this year, even though admin says they would. Basically, as time has gone on, I basically don’t take the word of any organization that they will do “X” for “Y”. They will do it when they want and not what you want.

Here is a RVU benchmark estimation.

https://www.bumc.bu.edu/bumg/files/2022/04/Vizient-wRVU-Benchmarks-2022.pdf

RVUs of 5900 for general pediatrics, would be about 90th percentile so that does seem high.

If I remember correctly, Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements also decreased in 2022 so by default, since RVUs are based on CMS, the number of RVUs must go up to account for the same revenue generation.

Now, it is a bit weird on the other hand that your colleagues RVU benchmarks aren’t changing but yours are. That doesn’t seem right.

 

[anonperson]

I'm trying to find some definitive info. on this but last year I was told I need to generate 4900 RVUs annually to meet my base income. This year my employer wants to increase that to 5825 RVUs annually without any change in my pay. My employer is saying that the requirement of 5825 is equivalent to my current 4900 when converting to 2022 CMS wRVU values, so I assume this means if I see the same volume of patients and do the same work as last year, instead of generating 4900, I will generate 5925 RVUs instead. Anyone else aware of this change? I'm already overwhelmed with our volumes/workload so I want to make sure this RVU requirement increase is truly equivalent and not my employer findings ways to increase my work even more or pay me less. I spoke to other doctors at my office but they're contracts aren't ending for another few years (older physicians who joined much before me) and I was told no one is changing their RVU requirements yet...so it's just me for now which has me second guessing this change.

Are they making the assumption that you will be able to code at a higher level with the outpatient coding changes?

That seems like a huge jump just to keep your base. I would try to get some median data on wRVUs to figure out if it is fair.

Remember, admin is typically trying to underpay and overwork you.

 

[mvenus929]

We don't have a base RVU target to meet, but our goal as a division is to hit the 50%ile for AAAP data for peds endo, which went up from 2760 to 3000 per FTE this fiscal year.

The outpatient coding changes, if you control your own billing, have made it easier to get some RVUs, so this change on their part is likely reflective of the decrease in compensation for RVU to hit the same earnings. But if you're the only one being impacted, that doesn't seem fair.