§ 414.22 Relative value units (RVUs).

CMS establishes RVUs for physicians' work, practice expense, and malpractice insurance.

(a) Physician work RVUs—(1) General rule. Physician work RVUs are established using a relative value scale in which the value of physician work for a particular service is rated relative to the value of work for other physician services.

(2) Special RVUs for anesthesia and radiology services)—(i) Anesthesia services. The rules for determining RVUs for anesthesia services are set forth in § 414.46.

(ii) Radiology services. CMS bases the RVUs for all radiology services on the relative value scale developed under section 1834(b)(1)(A) of the Act, with appropriate modifications to ensure that the RVUs established for radiology services that are similar or related to other physician services are consistent with the RVUs established for those similar or related services.

(b) Practice expense RVUs. (1) Practice expense RVUs are computed for each service or class of service by applying average historical practice cost percentages to the estimated average allowed charge during the 1991 base period.

(2) The average practice expense percentage for a service or class of services is computed as follows: