UPDATE: 2011-2016 work RVU (wRVU) and total (tRVU) now included. A reader asked me if I could explain what the most common hospitalist evaluation and management (E/M) codes were and provide a list of their RVU values. Here is the question: I recently found your website and love it. I am finishing up my last few months of residency and starting as a Hospitalist July 1. I was just curious if you could send a revised list of the most common RVUs used on a day to day basis. Have they changed since Nov 2010? I am having to learn all inpatient billing/coding/RVU on my own and I've learned a ton from your site. I still have 4 months to learn as much as I can before actually start handing in my charges. I was also wondering if you could email or send me a link to your card thing you carry around that lets you add up point for decision making. Thanks for creating your site.
Below is an updated list of the most common evaluation and management CPT® codes you will use and the RVU value (work and total) for each code in hospitalist medicine. Make sure to review the AMA's authority on codes with their publication CPT 2018 Standard Edition available below and to the right from Amazon. While I did provide an updated table, the changes are minimal, mostly involving minor changes in the practice expense component of the RVU total.
Below is an updated list of the most common evaluation and management CPT® codes you will use and the RVU value (work and total) for each code in hospitalist medicine. Make sure to review the AMA's authority on codes with their publication CPT 2018 Standard Edition available below and to the right from Amazon. While I did provide an updated table, the changes are minimal, mostly involving minor changes in the practice expense component of the RVU total.
Remember, your progress notes will be filled with ICD codes that represent your diagnosis. You link the ICD codes to your E/M CPT® code as I have listed below in the tables. The CPT® codes are the E/M codes. Each E/M code is worth a specific number of total relative value units (RVUs). The total RVU for each E/M code (CPT® code) is a sum of the workRVU + malpractice RVU + practice expense RVU.
There are published hospitalist benchmarks with regards to RVU embedded in the 2010 SHM/MGMA hospitalist salary and compensation survey. This information is sure to give you a great sense of what you are worth in the market place. If your income is dependent on production, many programs will use work RVU as their marker of productivity. You want an apples to apples comparison between programs. Make sure you understand what you're reading in your contract. You want to know if your productivity benchmarks are in total RVUs or work RVUs, because there is a huge difference in these values.
With that said, here are your tables of values for the most commonly used E/M hospitalist CPT® codes and their RVU values, both total RVU (tRVU) and work RVU (wRVU). I have reviewed the RVU values and I have updated the 2012 table to 2016 values as well (in orange). You can also look up any CPT® code on the CMS website, complete with RVU value and dollar value for any locality. Just go to this link and you can search any CPt® code you desire. Call it an RVU calculator if you'd like. This table has been fully updated as of April 4, 2016 to show updates in the tRVU values for most hospitalist CPT® codes.
CPT® description 2012-2016 TABLE CPT® wRVU tRVU low level in-patient admit
UPDATE 201699221
1.92
2.86
2.86mid level in-patient admit
UPDATE 201699222
2.61
3.96
3.86high level in-patient admit
UPDATE 201699223
3.86
5.82
5.71low level observation admit
UPDATE 201699218
1.92
2.85
2.81mid level observation admit
UPDATE 201699219
2.60
3.90
3.82high level observation admit
UPDATE 201699220
3.56
5.32
5.22low level admit/dc same date
UPDATE 201699234
2.56
3.88
3.77mid level admit/dc same date
2016UPDATE99235
3.24
4.86
4.76high level admit/dc same date
2016UPDATE99236
4.20
6.27
6.13low level in-patient consult
No CMS updates are available99253
2.27
3.26
mid level in-patient consult
No CMS updates are available99254
3.29
4.70
high level in-patient consult
No CMS updates are available99255
4.0
5.68
low level in-patient follow-up
UPDATE 201699231
0.76
1.13
1.11mid level in-patient follow-up
UPDATE 201699232
1.39
2.07
2.03high level in-patient follow-up
UPDATE 201699233
2.0
2.97
2.93low level observation follow-up
2016 UPDATE99224
0.76
1.14
1.12mid level observation follow-up
2016 UPDATE99225
1.39
2.06
2.05high level observation follow-up
2016 UPDATE99226
2.0
2.96
2.96<30 minutes in-patient discharge
UPDATE 201699238
1.28
2.07
2.04>30 minutes in-patient discharge
UPDATE 201699239
1.9
3.07
3.02mid level established outpatient follow-up
UPDATE 201699213
0.97
1.46 (fac) 1.44
2.14 (nonfac) 2.05>mid-high level established outpatient follow-up
UPDATE 201699214
1.5
2.25 (fac) 2.21
3.14 (nonfac) 3.02>high level established outpatient follow-up
2016 UPDATE99215
2.11
3.13 (fac) 3.13
4.20 (nonfac) 4.07observation discharge
2016 UPDATE99217
1.28
2.08
2.05critical care initial
UPDATE 201699291
4.5
6.42
6.31 (fac) 7.75 (nonfac)critical care add on
UPDATE 201699292
2.25
3.22
3.16 (fac) 3.46 (nonfac)prolonged service initial in-patient
UPDATE 201699356
1.71
2.64
2.59prolonged service add on in-patient
UPDATE 201699357
1.71
2.61
2.57central line
UPDATE 201636556
2.5
3.61
3.49 (fac) 6.66 (nonfac)paracentesis
UPDATE 201649082
1.24
2.05
2.12 (fac) 5.39 (nonfac)lumbar puncture
UPDATE 201662270
1.37
2.29
2.25 (fac) 4.54 (nonfac)thoracentesis
2016 UPDATES
32554
1.82
2.59 (fac) 5.70(nonfac)CPR/Resuscitation
UPDATE 201692950
4.0
5.39
5.33 (fac) 8.61 (nonfac)smoking cessation counseling 3-10 min
UPDATE 201699406
0.24
0.35
0.35 (fac) 0.40 (nonfac)smoking cessation counseling > 10 min
UPDATE 201699407
0.5
0.74
0.73 (fac) 0.78 (nonfac)advance care plan first 30 min
NEW 201699497
1.50
0.35
2.22 (fac) 2.40 (nonfac)advance care plans next 30 min
new 201699498
1.40
0.35
2.08 (fac) 2.09 (nonfac)
CPT® description 2011 TABLE CPT® wRVU tRVU low level in-patient admit
99221
1.92
2.86
mid level in-patient admit
99222
2.61
3.89
high level in-patient admit
99223
3.86
5.71
low level observation admit
99218
1.28
1.90
mid level observation admit
99219
2.14
3.17
high level observation admit
99220
2.99
4.43
low level admit/dc same date
99234
2.56
3.88
mid level admit/dc same date
99235
3.41
5.07
high level admit/dc same date
99236
4.26
6.30
low level in-patient consult
99253
2.27
3.26
mid level in-patient consult
99254
3.29
4.70
high level in-patient consult
99255
4.0
5.68
low level in-patient follow-up
99231
0.76
1.13
mid level in-patient follow-up
99232
1.39
2.05
high level in-patient follow-up
99233
2.0
2.94
low level observation follow-up
99224
0.54
0.82
mid level observation follow-up
99225
0.96
1.45
high level observation follow-up
99226
1.44
2.17
<30 minutes in-patient discharge
99238
1.28
2.04
>30 minutes in-patient discharge
99239
1.9
2.99
observation discharge
99217
1.28
2.04
critical care initial
99291
4.5
6.4
critical care add on
99292
2.25
3.21
prolonged service initial in-patient
99356
1.71
2.57
prolonged service add on in-patient
99357
1.71
2.58
central line
36556
2.5
3.61
paracentesis
49080
1.35
2.05
lumbar puncture
62270
1.37
2.32
thoracentesis
32421
1.54
2.28
CPR/Resuscitation
92950
3.79
5.14
smoking cessation counseling 3-10 min
99406
0.24
0.35
smoking cessation counseling > 10 min
99407
0.5
0.73
Make sure to find all my other resources in my coding lectures and other important data on hospitalist economics.
LINK TO POCKET CODING CARD POST
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