Big Changes for Medical Billing RVUs

Keep your ears open for medical billing Relative Value Unit changes. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services plans on making huge cuts next year. Strangely, some medical professions will largely benefit from these cuts while a great number of other medical professionals will lose a lot of revenue. Recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services released a list of medical billing winners and losers.

There are many medical billing current procedural terminology codes that will receive huge double digit slashes next year. Instead of calculating the relative value units from a top down method, they will use a bottom up method. They have suggested four different ways to calculate the practice expense relative value units.

There are many medical billing professionals that will lose valuable reimbursements with these cuts. For example, audiologists are expected to lose about fifteen to 20 percent. Other medical billing professionals that will see reductions are cardiologists, oncologists, and nuclear medicine physicians.

Strangely, there are physicians who will gain valuable medical billing reimbursement with these changes. dermatologists are thought to receive a fourteen to twenty percent payment increase. Other professionals that will receive medical billing increases our oral surgeons and gastroenterologists.

If you do medical billing for an oral surgical practice you may be happy about these new changes. However, most medical practices will lose out on the new relative value unit calculations. Double digit medical billing reimbursement cuts may indicate a large change for your practice. You may need to cut back in other areas to pick up the slack. Don’t let your customer service area suffer or your medical service area suffer because you have a lack of cash flow. Cut back on the unnecessary elements of your practice during these times of medical billing difficulties.

View all Articles by: Melissa Clark, CCS-P