AMA Specialty Society Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC)

What is it?

This volunteer committee, comprised of physicians and other health care professionals, seeks to explain the resources required to provide medical services and makes recommendations to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding the Medicare Resource-Based Relative Value Scale (RBRVS) that supports Medicare’s physician fee schedule. When making recommendations, the RUC considers physician work (including the time and intensity associated with a service), clinical staff time, medical supplies and equipment, and professional liability insurance.  CMS typically accepts over 90% of the RUC’s recommendations each year. The RUC recommendations to CMS reflect the importance of services that all physicians, including primary care physicians, perform. 

Why is the RUC Important?

While the RUC is not required to submit recommendations and CMS is not obliged to accept them, it is crucial for the federal government to consider input from physicians and medical professionals about the medical services they perform in their daily patient care. Input from the RUC also helps ensure that the government adopts policies that reflect current medical practice.  

The result of this process is a balanced system in which physicians volunteer their highly technical, and firsthand experience regarding medical procedures and services while the government retains oversight and final decision making authority.   

Values adopted by CMS for the Medicare physician fee schedule often influence payment rates for state Medicaid programs and commercial payers. 

Importance of RUC Surveys 

AAP’s Role 

The AAP plays an important role in shaping payment rates for services provided by pediatricians through its active participation on the RUC and the survey process.    

AAP members play a vital role by completing specialty surveys distributed by the Academy on behalf of the RUC to assess appropriate RVU assignment for new, modified or revalued services. 

The AAP RUC Team is comprised of:    

RUC Advisor 
Alternate RUC Advisor
RUC Representative 
Alternate RUC Representative   

Why are RUC Surveys Conducted?  

Surveys are used by the AMA RUC to allow medical specialty societies to have an active role in ensuring that relative values assigned to medical procedures and services are accurately and fairly presented to CMS. These surveys are critical because the values derived by member survey responses are used by our RUC advisors to make valuation recommendations to the AMA RUC. The goal of the surveys is to obtain time and complexity estimates for performing a specific medical procedure or service. This information is then used to estimate a recommended physician work value (RVU).  

For more information, please go to the AMA website

If you’re interested in learning more about the work of the RUC and getting more involved, contact Marsha Schofield, AAP RUC Consultant, at [email protected].