wRVU & Physician Pay Guides

Physician CME Allowance: What Employment Contracts Should Offer (2026)

Published August 12, 2026

CME allowances for employed physicians typically run $2,000–$5,000/year with 5–10 paid days. What expenses are covered, how CME time interacts with your wRVU production bonus, the tax treatment difference between accountable and non-accountable plans, and seven contract terms to clarify before signing.

Critical Care Billing and wRVUs: How 99291 and 99292 Add Up

Published August 10, 2026

How time-based critical care codes work, what counts as billable time, and how separately billable procedures interact with your 99291 and 99292 wRVU total — with the exact 2026 CMS wRVU values and the documentation detail that protects the billing.

Global Period Surgery: How It Affects Your wRVU Credit

Published August 7, 2026

When you perform a major operation, routine post-op visits are already bundled into the procedure's wRVU — credited on the date of surgery, not when the visits happen. What this means for your production reports, the modifier -54/-55 split, and what to confirm in your contract.

Physician Ramp Period Pay: Year-One wRVU Guide

Published August 5, 2026

New attending physicians typically generate 60–75% of specialty-median wRVU in year one. How to model the production gap, spot whether your "guarantee" is actually a recoverable draw, and negotiate ramp terms that protect your income at the transition.

Teaching Physician wRVU Rules: When Supervision Earns You Credit

Published August 3, 2026

How CMS teaching physician rules determine when your work alongside residents earns wRVU credit — the presence requirements for E&M visits and procedures, the primary care exception, and what academic physicians need to negotiate.

Collections vs. wRVU Physician Pay: What Your Contract Is Actually Measuring

Published July 31, 2026

How physician collections-based pay differs from wRVU pay — what each model measures, how financial risk is distributed between you and your employer, and what to scrutinize before signing.

Physician Long-Term Disability Insurance: What Employer Plans Cover

Published July 29, 2026

Group LTD replaces 60% of base salary up to a monthly cap — and many plans switch from own-occupation to any-occupation coverage after 24 months. Here's what to confirm before you need to use the policy.

Physician Income Guarantee: How It Works and What Happens After It Ends

Published July 27, 2026

How hospital income guarantee periods work — what you receive, how the loan-forgiveness reconciliation works, what happens when the guarantee expires, and the contract terms that matter most before you sign.

Telehealth Visits and Your wRVU Pay: What Counts (2026)

Published July 24, 2026

Video telehealth earns the same wRVU as in-person — the codes are identical. Audio-only visits now use new code families with slightly lower values. Whether either counts toward your productivity bonus depends entirely on your contract.

Short-Term Disability & Your wRVU Pay: What's Not Covered

Published July 22, 2026

Employer STD typically replaces only your base salary — not your wRVU productivity bonus. Learn how to calculate the real income gap, what LTD adds, and what to negotiate in your employment contract.

How Tiered wRVU Pay Structures Work (2026)

Published July 20, 2026

How physician tiered wRVU compensation calculates pay differently under bracket and retroactive rate structures — plus the declining-tier trap that can cost you tens of thousands mid-year.

G2211 Add-On Code: How It Affects Your wRVU Pay (2026)

Published July 17, 2026

G2211 adds 0.33 wRVUs per qualifying primary care visit. What it means for your annual production, which payers cover it, and how employers are handling it in compensation plans.

Physician Relocation Bonus: What to Expect, How It's Taxed, and What to Negotiate (2026)

Published July 15, 2026

How physician relocation allowances are structured, what amounts to expect by employer type, how the 2026 tax rules apply, and the clawback terms to negotiate before you sign.

Physician Medical Director Stipend: What Admin Time Really Pays

Published July 13, 2026

How medical director stipends are structured for employed physicians, how to calculate what admin time costs in lost wRVU production, and what to ask before accepting the role.

When You Work With an NP or PA: Who Gets the wRVU Credit?

Published July 11, 2026

Billing rules determine who earns the wRVU credit when a physician works alongside an NP or PA — and those rules differ entirely depending on whether the visit happens in your office or inside a hospital.

Physician PTO and wRVU Pay: How Vacation Really Hits Your Paycheck

Published July 10, 2026

In a pure wRVU contract, PTO is unpaid unless the contract says otherwise. In base-plus-production, the base covers vacation but your bonus gap is real. Here's how to calculate the dollar cost and what to negotiate.

Quality Bonuses in Physician Contracts: How They Work (2026)

Published July 9, 2026

How physician quality bonuses work alongside wRVU pay — what metrics are used (HEDIS, patient satisfaction, HCC coding), how the money is structured, and what contract terms to scrutinize before you sign.

Multiple Procedures, One Day: Does Your wRVU Credit Get Cut?

Published July 8, 2026

When you do two procedures in one session, Medicare reduces what it pays the practice. Whether your wRVU credit shrinks too depends entirely on your contract — the billing rule and the pay rule are separate, and they are not always the same.

Leaving Mid-Year: What Happens to Your wRVU Bonus and Draw

Published July 7, 2026

When you leave a physician job mid-year, your bonus and draw don't resolve automatically. A plain-English guide to pro-rata provisions, recoverable draw balances, and what contract terms protect your production credit at departure.

Parental Leave & Your wRVU Production Target: What to Negotiate (2026)

Published July 6, 2026

How physician parental leave affects wRVU production thresholds, whether FMLA requires bonus proration, a worked dollar example, and the contract language that protects your pay.

The 2026 wRVU Efficiency Adjustment: What Procedural Physicians Need to Know

Published July 5, 2026

CMS cut work RVUs by 2.5% on ~7,700 non-time-based codes starting January 1, 2026. Procedural physicians doing identical work are generating fewer wRVUs — and many employment contracts have not been updated to compensate.

Physician Non-Compete Clauses: Enforceability and How to Negotiate (2026)

Published July 4, 2026

Which states ban physician non-competes, what reasonable terms look like in enforcing states, and five tactics to negotiate before you sign — with 2025 state law updates.

How Your wRVU Threshold Is Set — and How to Audit It

Published July 3, 2026

How employers derive your wRVU production threshold from your base salary, what percentile benchmark it should target, and three ways it can be quietly set against you — including the 2026 CMS efficiency adjustment impact on procedural specialties.

Physician 1099 vs W-2: What Each Really Pays (2026)

Published July 2, 2026

How W-2 employee and 1099 independent contractor pay compare for physicians — self-employment tax math, benefits offset, Solo 401(k) advantages, and when 1099 actually wins.

Part-Time Physician wRVU Contracts: How Pay Is Pro-Rated

Published July 1, 2026

How wRVU thresholds, base salary, and call obligations scale with FTE — with worked examples, benefits-cliff risks, and key contract negotiation tips.

Physician Sign-On Bonus Clawbacks Explained (2026)

Published June 30, 2026

How physician sign-on bonuses work, how clawback periods and pro-rata repayment are calculated, and what to negotiate before you sign.

How wRVUs Work: How They're Calculated and What One Is Worth (2026)

Published June 27, 2026

A plain-English 2026 guide to wRVUs: how CMS assigns them to CPT codes, why the Medicare conversion factor is not your pay rate, and how to turn wRVUs into income.

What's a Fair $/wRVU Rate? Conversion Factors Explained (2026)

Published June 27, 2026

Typical dollar-per-wRVU rates run roughly $35-85 and vary by specialty and market. Learn how to judge if a 2026 productivity offer is fair and what to compare.

Physician Productivity Bonuses and Draws, Explained

Published June 27, 2026

How physician productivity pay actually works: wRVU thresholds, tiered rates, the (actual minus threshold) x rate formula, base-plus-production vs pure production, and recoverable vs non-recoverable draws, with a worked example.

Why Your wRVUs Changed in 2021 — and Why Your Pay May Be Stuck on an Old CMS Schedule

Published June 27, 2026

The 2021 E/M overhaul raised office-visit wRVUs sharply. Learn the before/after values and why a frozen CMS schedule year in your contract can quietly cut your pay.

How to Check If You're Being Paid for All Your wRVUs

Published June 27, 2026

A step-by-step guide for physicians, PAs, and NPs to track encounters, compute expected wRVUs, reconcile the productivity report, and fix pay discrepancies.

wRVU vs RVU vs the Conversion Factor: A Plain-English Guide

Published June 27, 2026

A clear guide to RVU, wRVU, and the conversion factor — what each measures, why your pay rate is not Medicare's ~$33 CF, and how the math actually works.

wRVU Values for Common CPT Codes (2026): 99213, 99214, and More

Published June 27, 2026

2026 work RVU (wRVU) values for common outpatient E/M codes including 99213 and 99214, plus how wRVUs convert to pay and how to look up any CPT code.

Claims-Made vs. Occurrence Malpractice Insurance (and What Tail Coverage Is)

Published June 27, 2026

A physician's plain-English guide to claims-made vs. occurrence malpractice insurance, tail and nose coverage, who pays the tail, and what it costs.

How to Negotiate Your $/wRVU Rate

Published June 27, 2026

Negotiate your $/wRVU rate the right way: learn your specialty's survey range, pin the CMS year, and structure the threshold and tiers. Worked 2026 example.

Physician Employment Contract Red Flags: The Clauses That Quietly Cost You

Published June 27, 2026

A physician's guide to the contract clauses that bite: frozen wRVU schedules, recoverable draws, tail coverage, non-competes, without-cause exits, and clawbacks.

Salary vs. wRVU Production Pay: How to Compare

Published June 27, 2026

Compare straight salary, base-plus-production, and pure wRVU pay. Model each at your expected volume, find your break-even, and weigh the real risks.

How Many wRVUs Per Day and Per Year? A Reality Check

Published June 27, 2026

A plain-English look at typical daily and annual wRVU production, how it varies by specialty, and what really drives the numbers — visit mix and coding accuracy.

Hospitalist, Nocturnist, and Call Pay, Explained

Published June 27, 2026

How hospitalist shift pay, nocturnist night differentials, weekend premiums, and in-house vs home call pay work — and how shift and wRVU models combine.

Malpractice Tail Coverage Calculator

If you leave your job: your employer's tail-coverage share, what you'd owe, and when full coverage vests.

RVU Calculator

Turn CPT codes into wRVUs and a pay estimate, year-aware across CMS schedules.