Rvu

Rvu is most commonly encountered as a variant spelling of RVU, an acronym standing for Relative Value Unit. In U.S. medical billing, RVUs are a central part of the Resource-Based Relative Value Scale (RBRVS), a framework used to determine physician payments for services under Medicare and many private payers. Each CPT-coded service is assigned a work RVU, a practice expense RVU, and a malpractice RVU, which together constitute the total RVU value of the service.

To compute payments, the sum of the RVUs is multiplied by a conversion factor, and is adjusted for geographic differences in cost of living through the geographic practice cost index (GPCI). The work RVU reflects time, skill, effort, and judgment; the practice expense RVU accounts for overhead and practice costs; the malpractice RVU covers professional liability costs. The overall RVU value is then translated into a monetary payment using the conversion factor and location adjustments. RVUs are also used as a proxy for service valuation and physician productivity in practice management and scheduling.

The system was developed and implemented in the 1990s as part of Medicare reform and has since become a standard across many payer contracts and health systems in the United States. While "Rvu" may appear in non-technical texts as a misspelling or variant of RVU, the established term and concept in billing contexts is RVU, Relative Value Unit.