In an RVU world, no one is king of the castle for long
Perhaps the best argument against an RVU-centric system is the acknowledgment that RVUs aren’t forever. You may be king of the castle today, but it could be someone else tomorrow. We’ve all seen one specialty or another rise from the bottom of the list for RVUs to the top or were ranked at the top and, at some point, fell from that perch. With the emergence of more innovative imaging technologies, this status quo is guaranteed to see another shake-up at some point. When that happens, and your specialty falls on the list, do you still want to work in an RVU-only world?

Radiology is contending with a serious crisis of burnout and staff shortages. To make it through this crisis, we, as a profession, need to rekindle a sense of community in our work. We’re clinicians, not independent contractors; we’re supposed to all be on the same team, working as one holistic practice. The feelings of bias and friction from unfair workload distribution, exacerbated by RVU metrics, threaten to unravel that sense of community – not to mention the patient-first, care-first mentality that all physicians work tirelessly to keep as their #1 priority.
Looking for a world past RVUs only – automating workflow orchestration to ensure that cases are assigned more fairly and everyone shares in the benefits and the work as equally as possible – is a major opportunity to reinvigorate that communal feeling and make it stronger than ever.

About the author: Raj Chopra, MD, is the Chief Medical Officer for Merge by Merative. He has over 20 years of clinical experience as a board-certified radiologist. He has been actively involved in various advisory roles, helping to guide many organizations on imaging AI, FDA regulations, billing and coding, claims processing, utilization reviews, and Medicare/Medicaid compliance.

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