Implementing a RB-RVS Fee Schedule for Physician Services

An Assessment of Policy Options for the California Workers' Compensation Program

Barbara O. Wynn, Harry H. Liu, Andrew W. Mulcahy, Edward N. Okeke, Neema Iyer, Lawrence S. Painter

Published Jun 19, 2013

The study uses 2011 medical data to examine the impact of implementing a resource-based relative value scale to pay for physician services under the California worker's compensation system. Current allowances under the Official Medical Fee Schedule are approximately 111 percent of Medicare allowed amounts and will transition to 120 percent of Medicare over four-years. Using Medicare policies to establish the fee schedule amounts, aggregate allowances will decrease for four types of service by the end of the transition in 2017: anesthesia (-16.5 percent), surgery (- 13.4 percent), radiology (-9.6 percent) and pathology (-19.5 percent). Aggregate allowances for evaluation and management visits and for medicine will increase by 49.0 percent and 23.3 percent respectively.

Topics

Document Details

Citation

Chicago Manual of Style

Wynn, Barbara O., Harry H. Liu, Andrew W. Mulcahy, Edward N. Okeke, Neema Iyer, and Lawrence S. Painter, Implementing a RB-RVS Fee Schedule for Physician Services: An Assessment of Policy Options for the California Workers' Compensation Program. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2013. https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR993.html.
BibTeX RIS

The research described in this report was prepared for the California Department of Industrial Relations and conducted under the umbrella of the RAND Center for Health and Safety in the Workplace.

This publication is part of the RAND working paper series. RAND working papers are intended to share researchers' latest findings and to solicit informal peer review. They have been approved for circulation by RAND but may not have been formally edited or peer reviewed.

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.

RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.