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Physician Contract Glossary · Compensation

wRVU (Work Relative Value Unit)

A wRVU is the standardized unit that measures the physician work in a service, and it is the most common basis for production pay.

The work RVU is the slice of a service's total value that reflects your time, skill, and effort, separate from practice expense and malpractice cost. Medicare and most payers use RVUs to set reimbursement, and most production contracts pay you a dollar amount per wRVU above a threshold. Your income in these models is wRVUs times conversion factor, so both numbers matter equally.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

Get both the threshold and the conversion factor in writing, and benchmark the rate against MGMA data for your specialty. A low conversion factor quietly caps your earnings no matter how hard you work.

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