Wait. What? The RUC doesn't skew toward specialists? | Healthcare Finance News

Primary care physicians have long claimed that the Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) has skewed in favor of specialists, but a new University of Michigan Medical School report says there is no such evidence, which, no doubt, will only add to the contentious debate about the secretive committee. As popular narrative contends, the RUC – an American Medical Association creation spurred into existence in response to the Harvard National RBRVS and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989 – has long overstated many of the factors used to determine physician payment. This, according to a new report from the Public Citizen, has led to a weighted payment system that favors specialists over their primary care counterparts. “To the extent that the RUC’s members are biased toward their own specialties, this results in the overvaluing of specialty procedures at the expense of primary care. Because there are significantly more specialty procedures than primary care procedures, the ove

Primary care physicians have long claimed that the Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) has skewed in favor of specialists, but a new University of Michigan Medical School report says there is no such evidence, which, no doubt, will only add to the contentious debate about the secretive committee. As popular narrative contends, the RUC – an American Medical Association creation spurred into existence in response to the Harvard National RBRVS and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989 – has long overstated many of the factors used to determine physician payment. This, according to