Tag Archive for ‘resource-based relative value scale’

Centennial reprint: 1988 report served as basis for the Medicare payment system

To help commemorate the ACS’ Centennial, the Bulletin is reprinting articles centered on the issues and developments that have defined the character of the organization and the surgical profession for the last 100 years. This month’s reprint from January 1989 looks at the development and implications of what was then known as the Harvard RBRVS. Perhaps no initiative has so profoundly affected the way physicians are compensated for the services they provide than the creation of the resource-based relative value scale (RBRVS).

This month’s reprint reviews stakeholders’ reactions to the report, including those of members of Congress; explores the key issues that were unresolved at the time of the report’s release; and considers how the study might have been used to develop payment policies in the future.