CPT wRVUs · 2026 · evaluation & management
CPT 99203 — New patient visit — low complexity (level 3)
2026 work RVU (wRVU) · increased from 1.42 in 2020
What 99203 is worth
A wRVU is a unit of physician work, not a dollar amount. Your pay for 99203 is 1.60 × 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 99203 pays at different contract rates
One 99203 equals 1.60 wRVU. Here is the production credit that generates at a range of common $/wRVU rates:
| Contract rate | Pay per 99203 |
|---|---|
| $40/wRVU | $64.00 |
| $50/wRVU | $80.00 |
| $60/wRVU | $96.00 |
| $70/wRVU | $112.00 |
| $80/wRVU | $128.00 |
At a mid-market $55/wRVU, doing this code about 20× a week works out to roughly 1,536 wRVU and $84,480 of production a year — before any threshold, tiering, or bonus in your contract.
99203 wRVU history (2020–2026)
CMS has revalued this code since 2020: its work RVU increased from 1.42 to 1.60. 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 | 1.42 |
| 2021 | 1.60 |
| 2022 | 1.60 |
| 2023 | 1.60 |
| 2024 | 1.60 |
| 2025 | 1.60 |
| 2026 | 1.60 |
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 evaluation & management codes
Other codes physicians look up alongside 99203:
99202 — New patient visit — straightforward (level 2) · wRVU 0.93 99204 — New patient visit — moderate complexity (level 4) · wRVU 2.60 99205 — New patient visit — high complexity (level 5) · wRVU 3.50 99211 — Established minimal / nurse visit · wRVU 0.18 99212 — Established patient visit — straightforward (level 2) · wRVU 0.70 99213 — Established patient visit — low complexity (level 3) · wRVU 1.30FAQ
How many wRVUs is CPT 99203?
For 2026, CPT 99203 (new patient visit — low complexity (level 3)) carries a work RVU of 1.60.
How much does 99203 pay?
Pay = 1.60 wRVU × your employer's negotiated $/wRVU rate. At an example $50/wRVU that's about $80.00 of production credit — your actual rate is set by your contract, not by Medicare's conversion factor.
Did the wRVU for 99203 change?
Yes — its work RVU increased from 1.42 (2020) to 1.60 (2026). CMS revalues codes over time, so always price against the current-year schedule.
Is 99203 the Medicare conversion factor times a dollar amount?
No. The wRVU (1.60) 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.
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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.