Medicare’s Bundling of Trauma Care Codes Violates Relative Value Principles

BACKGROUND:Physician payment by Medicare is based on a Resource-Based Relative Value Scale (RBRVS). The Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) was introduced to counter unbundling by pairing component procedures with more comprehensive procedures. We hypothesized that Medicare’s rebundling process ignored relative value concepts. METHODS:CCI tables were downloaded from Medicare’s website. Each comprehensive code’s Relative Value Units (RVUs) were compared with component RVUs. Trauma, Burn, and Critical Care (TBC) surgeon charges were analyzed to determine whether component services had higher RVUs than the comprehensive charge. RESULTS:2,990 component CPT codes had total RVUs exceeding the RVUs of their paired comprehensive codes. If the undervalued comprehensive codes had been valued at their highest component’s value, the minimum additional revenue would have been $211,600.59 per surgeon per year. CONCLUSION:A relative value scale depends upon equity in value units. Disregarding RVUs when bundling services and procedures results in severe physician underpayment.