Using normalized RVU reporting to evaluate physician productivity.

Relative value units (RVUs) were developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to establish a value for each physician service categorized by a current procedural terminology code. For some time, RVUs provided an effective tool for measuring physician productivity, until CMS decided to adjust RVU weightings annually, undermining the tool's comparative effectiveness. A new model developed by the clinical practice management plan serving Stony Brook Medicine University Physicians in Stony Brook, N.Y., provides a means to normalize RVUs from year to year, thereby making RVUs again useful for assessing physician productivity.