I’ve been thinking about the new year, and new year’s resolutions.
Recently, it occurred to me that relying on a WRVU-based physician compensation plan to drive volume and revenue in your practice is a lot like making a resolution to lose 50 pounds without working on a supporting nutrition or fitness plan. You’re not setting yourself up for success, to say the least.
I do understand how practices like yours end up with this kind of comp plan. Something like this:
Total compensation = [$X] in base compensation + [$Y] per WRVU above [Z] WRVUs per year
After all, WRVUs, or work relative value units, seem to show up in every productivity dashboard and every leadership meeting. That just makes sense—the more WRVUs physicians generate, the more revenue the practice brings in.
As much as this line of thinking makes sense, I’ve watched so many practices implement WRVU-based comp plans and fall short of their goals. Sometimes, that meant a waste of time and money. Other times, physicians’ trust in their practice’s leaders was irreparably damaged.
I’m convinced that these practices built their physician compensation plans, and staked their futures, on top of three unspoken assumptions:
- Physicians should be able to match benchmark WRVU levels without too much effort
- Physicians choose to be more or less productive
- Physicians will want to do more so they can earn more
In the next three posts, I’m going to question each of these assumptions, and I’ll leave you with specific strategies you can use to improve patient access, throughput, and your practice’s financial position without burning your physicians out. Click any of the assumptions linked above to read more.
