RVUs Explained: Work, Practice Expense, and Malpractice
What Are RVUs?
Relative Value Units (RVUs) are Medicare’s way of assigning value to clinical services. RVUs are a core input into reimbursement and are used throughout physician payment models.
Work RVU vs Practice Expense RVU vs Malpractice RVU
- Work RVU (wRVU): Reflects physician time, intensity, and technical skill.
- Practice Expense RVU (PE RVU): Captures staffing, supplies, and overhead inputs, and often varies by site of service.
- Malpractice RVU (MP RVU): Represents professional liability insurance risk and cost.
How RVUs Influence Reimbursement and Compensation
Medicare reimbursement starts with these RVU components, then applies locality adjustments and the conversion factor. Many organizations also use wRVUs as part of physician compensation design, productivity tracking, and benchmarking.
Example RVU Breakdown for a Common CPT Code
For CPT 99213 and CPT 99214, the total reimbursement reflects the sum of Work + PE + MP RVUs after geographic adjustment.
You can compare these code pages directly to see how RVU totals and site of service influence national and location-adjusted estimates.