wRVUs with a “fee modifying calculation”

[jbm14]

Hello everyone, 

I work at a rural hospital in orthopedic surgery. I recently met with my employer’s director of clinical operations to discuss my productivity. In my second contract (signed this summer) it states that there will be a bonus of $25 for every wRVU over 2350. Last year as a new graduate I produced somewhere around 4300. During the meeting with the director I was given a statement of practice operations stating my current RVUs, charges, etc with the statement that the “fee modifying deduction” has not yet been added to the RVU total. He states that I will receive 25% of the surgeon’s RVUs for each billable surgery. That makes sense, however, they are wanting to give me 85% of my own clinic RVUs. Does anyone else have any experience with these kind of deductions in regards to their bonus payout? I know the conversion factor of $25 is already pretty low, so are they trying to avoid paying me with these deductions? There is nothing in my contract regarding these deductions.
 

Thanks in advance.

[Arthropathy]

I don't know what a typical RVU is worth since I've never been on that model. However a 1st assist fee is usually only 15% of the procedure reimbursement, and I'm sure you are aware that E&M codes are usually reimbursed at 85% for a PA vs physician. So as far as the "Fee modifying calculation" that sounds legit to me.

[jbm14]

6 minutes ago, Arthropathy said:

I don't know what a typical RVU is worth since I've never been on that model. However a 1st assist fee is usually only 15% of the procedure reimbursement, and I'm sure you are aware that E&M codes are usually reimbursed at 85% for a PA vs physician. So as far as the "Fee modifying calculation" that sounds legit to me.

Yes, I understand that from a billing perspective. I’ve just never seen any posts about people discussing these types of deductions for a bonus payout. I was just curious if it was common practice. Thank you for the reply 

[AbeTheBabe]

We just switches over to RVU system as we partnered with a large healthcare organization. They pay out PA wRVU at $90. I get a bonus of 10-12% of that every quarter. Doing a deduction on your RVUs is pretty dumb, they should just pay a lower rate. Maybe they are deducting that for overhead? Do you have your own MA? (I share an MA with the surgeon most of the time)