relative value unit


relative value unit

Health insurance A comparative financial unit that may sometimes be used instead of dollar amounts in a surgical schedule, this number is multiplied by a conversion factor to arrive at the surgical benefit to be paid. See Resource-based relative value scale.

rel·a·tive val·ue u·nit

(RVU) (rel'ă-tiv val'yū yū'nit) A numeric factor assigned to a medical service during coding based on the skill and time required to undertake such a procedure.