What Every Physician Should Know About the RUC | AAFP

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Kent Moore is the AAFP's manager for health care financing and delivery systems and is a contributing editor to FPM. Dr. Felger practices in South Bend, Ind., and is a member of the AAFP Commission on Practice Enhancement. He is the AAFP's representative to the Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC). Dr. Larimore teaches at the In His Image Family Medicine Residency in Tulsa, Okla., and practiced family medicine for 20 years in Bryson City, N.C., and Kissimmee, Fla., before becoming a full-time author and medical journalist. He is the AAFP's alternative representative to the RUC. Dr. Mills, a member of the FPM Board of Editors, practices in Newton, Kan., where he is a partner and department head in the Wichita Clinic. He is the AAFP's RUC adviser. Author disclosure: nothing to disclose. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, never have so many physicians and other health care professionals owed so much to so few. The “few” in this case are the 29 members of the American Medical Associat

A small group of physicians has a big say in what you get paid. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, never have so many physicians and other health care professionals owed so much to so few. The “few” in this case are the 29 members of the American Medical Association/Specialty Society Relative Value Scale Update Committee, or RUC (rhymes with “truck”) for short. The RUC's recommendations to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) significantly influence the relative values assigned to physician services and, as a result, how much physicians are paid. CMS expects allowed expenditures un

What Every Physician Should Know About the RUC | AAFP

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