You Can’t Wait Forever – Provider Compensation and the CMS Physician Fee Schedule
Organizations that have not already transitioned to using wRVUs from the current CMS Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) should plan to make the switch sooner rather than later.
Due to the complexity surrounding this issue, many organizations continued to utilize the 2020 MPFS to calculate wRVUs for production-based provider compensation plans in 2021. In the short term, this ensured providers would continue to earn at historic compensation levels for similar volume. This also gave organizations time to conduct analysis and develop strategies for adjusting compensation parameters to coincide with the MPFS transition.
This was an effective approach last year and allowed many organizations to successfully transition to the new fee schedule. Based on our survey of 68 clients and colleagues, 58% of organizations implemented or planned to implement the new wRVU values by the end of 2021. (Figure 1) This leaves 42% of organizations who have pushed off implementation to 2022 or beyond.
For organizations still operating under the 2020 CMS Physician Fee Schedule wRVU values, MPFS transition should be a 2022 priority. While maintaining 2020 wRVU values was a useful temporary measure, it is not a viable long-term strategy.