Figure 1. Building Block Method of Work Relative Value Units (wRVUs) Assignment for Coronary Bypass Grafting (Current Procedural Terminology Code 33510).

Intensity is the terminology used in the literature but compensation rate is used in the article for clarity. Intensity values for the pre- and immediate postservice building blocks are fixed using numbers derived from the original Harvard studies. Time values for the pre-, immediate post, and intraservice period are available in the physician work time file and the wRVUs are available in the wRVU file. The wRVUs assigned to the pre- and immediate postservice period are the multiple of time and intensity. The intraservice wRVU can then be back calculated by taking the total wRVU and subtracting the wRVUs for the pre–, immediate, and post–evaluation and management (EM) building blocks. Finally the intraservice intensity can be calculated by dividing the wRVU for the intraservice period by intraservice time. Each EM code also has an intraservice time and intensity value but these values were omitted for simplicity and are also not necessary to the calculation.