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Physician Contract ToolThe RVU Calculator for Physician Contracts
Your first attending offer says it pays "per wRVU." Before you sign, see what that number actually becomes over a year, and what the same work would earn at a different rate.
Enter how many of each encounter you expect on a typical day. We use the CY2026 CMS work RVU for each code, multiply by your days worked, and total the year.
The same wRVUs at different rates
A conversion rate you accept without comparison is the single easiest number to leave on the table. Here is what your 5,500 wRVUs pay across a common range. Your rate is highlighted.
| $ per wRVU | Annual compensation | Difference vs your rate |
|---|
Comparison rows are illustrative $/wRVU points, not market benchmarks for your specialty or metro. Compensation shown is the wRVU-productivity component only.
This is an educational estimate of the productivity portion of a wRVU compensation model. It is not billing, coding, tax, or legal advice, and it does not include base salary, benefits, call pay, bonuses, quality incentives, or how your practice defines the wRVU target and threshold. Confirm every figure against your actual contract and a physician-friendly attorney before signing.
How wRVU compensation actually works
Nobody teaches the business of medicine in training. Here is the whole model in four steps.
- Every code you bill carries a work RVU (wRVU). The wRVU is a fixed number set by CMS that measures the physician work in a service: time, skill, mental effort, and stress. A 30 to 74 minute critical care visit (99291) is 4.50 wRVU. A day of VA-ECMO management (33949) is 4.49 wRVU. The values on this page are the CY2026 CMS work RVUs.
- Your wRVUs add up over the year. Multiply the wRVU of each service by how many you perform, and sum them. That annual total is the number your compensation model is built on.
- Your contract sets a dollar value per wRVU. This is the conversion rate. Annual wRVUs multiplied by your rate is your productivity compensation. This is the lever most offers bury, and the one you can compare.
- Watch the difference between work RVU and total RVU. Many online tables quote total RVU (work + practice expense + malpractice). Compensation models almost always pay on the work RVU alone, a smaller number. Every value on this page is the true work RVU, so you are comparing apples to apples.
Common IM, hospitalist, and critical care codes
True work RVUs for the services an internist bills most. Use these to sanity-check the wRVU assumptions in any offer. Vintage: CY2026 CMS Physician Fee Schedule.
| Code | Service | Work RVU |
|---|
Work RVU values reflect the CMS PFS CY2026 (facility setting where applicable). These are the physician-work component only, never total RVU. ‡ marks an add-on code billed alongside a base service. Always code what is documented and supported.
The rate is one line. The contract is thirty pages.
The RVU number is where reading a contract starts, not where it ends. The Real Contract walks you through the compensation model, the non-compete, tail coverage, and every clause the senior people in your program signed without reading, because they had no guide either.