CPT wRVUs · 2026 · procedure
CPT 10061 — Drain an abscess (complex / multiple)
2026 work RVU (wRVU) · decreased from 2.45 in 2020
What 10061 is worth
A wRVU is a unit of physician work, not a dollar amount. Your pay for 10061 is 2.39 × your employer's $/wRVU rate — a figure negotiated in your contract, commonly in the ~$35–90 range depending on specialty and market. That rate is not the Medicare conversion factor (about $33 for 2026), which is a billing rate, not a pay rate.
What 10061 pays at different contract rates
One 10061 equals 2.39 wRVU. Here is the production credit that generates at a range of common $/wRVU rates:
| Contract rate | Pay per 10061 |
|---|---|
| $40/wRVU | $95.60 |
| $50/wRVU | $119.50 |
| $60/wRVU | $143.40 |
| $70/wRVU | $167.30 |
| $80/wRVU | $191.20 |
At a mid-market $55/wRVU, doing this code about 20× a week works out to roughly 2,294 wRVU and $126,192 of production a year — before any threshold, tiering, or bonus in your contract.
10061 wRVU history (2020–2026)
CMS has revalued this code since 2020: its work RVU decreased from 2.45 to 2.39. If your contract prices wRVUs on a frozen older CMS year, the same visit can credit a different number of wRVUs than the current schedule — see why wRVUs changed in 2021 and how to audit what you were credited.
| CMS year | wRVU |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 2.45 |
| 2021 | 2.45 |
| 2022 | 2.45 |
| 2023 | 2.45 |
| 2024 | 2.45 |
| 2025 | 2.45 |
| 2026 | 2.39 |
How to track it
Confirm the value your billing system credited against the current CMS Physician Fee Schedule, and keep your own per-encounter log so you can catch any discrepancy between what you billed and what landed on your comp report. The free RVU calculator totals wRVUs across codes for any CMS year.
Related procedure codes
Other codes physicians look up alongside 10061:
10060 — Drain an abscess (simple / single) · wRVU 1.19 10080 — Drain a pilonidal cyst (simple) · wRVU 1.19 10120 — Remove foreign body under the skin (simple) · wRVU 1.19 10121 — Remove foreign body under the skin (complex) · wRVU 2.67 10160 — Needle aspiration of abscess/cyst/hematoma · wRVU 1.22 11042 — Wound debridement — skin / subcutaneous · wRVU 0.98FAQ
How many wRVUs is CPT 10061?
For 2026, CPT 10061 (drain an abscess (complex / multiple)) carries a work RVU of 2.39.
How much does 10061 pay?
Pay = 2.39 wRVU × your employer's negotiated $/wRVU rate. At an example $50/wRVU that's about $119.50 of production credit — your actual rate is set by your contract, not by Medicare's conversion factor.
Did the wRVU for 10061 change?
Yes — its work RVU decreased from 2.45 (2020) to 2.39 (2026). CMS revalues codes over time, so always price against the current-year schedule.
Is 10061 the Medicare conversion factor times a dollar amount?
No. The wRVU (2.39) measures physician work only. Your pay is that wRVU times your contract's $/wRVU rate, which is set by your employer — not the ~$33 Medicare conversion factor, which governs billing, not physician compensation.
Get the 1-page PDF of exactly what to ask about pay, wRVUs, and malpractice tail before you sign — plus new guides by email. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Educational only — not coding, billing, or financial advice. wRVU values reflect the CMS Physician Fee Schedule and change over time; the plain-language description is our own, not the AMA's copyrighted CPT descriptor. Confirm values against current CMS data.