“The present RVU metric for compensating physicians is flawed,” write authors Seymour Katz, MD, MACG and Gil Y. Melmed, MD in an opinion piece published in the April issue of the online journal Gastroenterology & Hepatology.
For Dr. Katz and Dr. Melmed, the Medicare Resource-Based Relative Value Scale (RBRVS) undervalues cognitive office efforts. They argue that the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) office visit is an “unfortunate paradigm.”
“The RVU metric ignores the complexity of modern physician visits as well as the time required to incorporate all of the data of the newer diagnostic tools and increasingly complex therapies into a meaningful therapeutic strategy. In addition, the metric lacks consideration of the growing elderly population with its multiple comorbidities; polypharmacy with potential drug interactions; and cognitive, physical, and social obstacles.”
Read the article by Dr. Katz and Dr. Melmed in Gastroenterology & Hepatology