Abstract
The Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) is a resource-based relative value scale (RBRVS) that has been the basis for payment for the care of Medicare beneficiaries since its implementation on January 1, 1992. The MPFS is also used as the basis for payment schedules used by many commercial insurers. It is therefore very important for surgeons to understand the legislation that mandated an RBRVS system for payment and how the RBRVS system was developed, implemented, and maintained. It is also important to understand how resource-based relative values are currently determined and how the valuation process has been modified over time. This understanding will provide an insight into why physician payment is changing and what the future holds for physician reimbursement.
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Notes
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For example, if the work of Reference Procedure A is given an arbitrary value of 100 on a scale of 0 to infinity, using magnitude estimation, survey respondents would be asked to place Procedures B through Z on this scale, relative to Procedure A.
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Mabry, C.D., Nagle, J. (2017). A Resource-Based Relative Value Scale (RBRVS) System. In: Savarise, M., Senkowski, C. (eds) Principles of Coding and Reimbursement for Surgeons. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43595-4_4
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