(a) ACCOUNT NUMBER COST CENTER TITLE

1. (1) The standard unit of measure will be the relative value units developed by the American Physical Therapy Association. Relative value units shall be counted during a patient visit for all cost center activities for which a charge is made. A patient visit is the occasion for service during which the resources of the physical therapy cost center are used. A visit is one appearance of a patient regardless of the number of evaluation, therapeutic, patient education activities performed during that appearance.
2. (2) The two major components of the relative value unit are: personnel time associated with the activity, and other direct and appropriate indirect department resources used in providing the activity. Fifteen minutes has been established as the least increment of time for which a unit of service (e.g., evaluation, therapeutic, or patient educational activity) can occur. The unit of service which requires the least amount of the physical therapy department's total resources is a modality. This activity is used to establish the basic relative value unit of 1.0. Since the basic relative value unit of 1.0 does not require the continuous attendance of physical therapy personnel, the initial unit value for those services that do require the continuous attendance of physical therapy personnel is adjusted upward. An additional.4 of a unit will be added to the initial increment for those activities requiring continuous attendance by physical therapy personnel. When subsequent 15-minute increments of service are provided, some of the initial direct and indirect costs do not recur or are reduced. Therefore, relative value units for subsequent increments of time are approximately 10 percent less than the initial unit value.
3. (3) The recording of 15-minute increments of service begins with the initiation of the evaluation, therapeutic, or patient educational activity. Although time may have been spent transporting the patient to the department or making entries in the medical record, RVU's are not counted for these activities. Patient transportation, treatment preparation and cleanup, and recordkeeping costs are incorporated in the weighting of the initial 15-minute increment of service and additional RVU's cannot be added for these activities. However, the time required to complete a separate formal report for patient evaluations or aftercare planning can be counted.

4. (4) Therapeutic or evaluation activities performed in the home shall have a unit value equivalent to that for the appropriate therapeutic or evaluation activity rendered plus an allowance for travel time to and from the home. Travel time for home visits is valued the same as those activities requiring continuous attendance by physical therapy personnel with the patient.

   (b) RELATIVE VALUE UNITS

   	Description	Initial 15 minutes	Additional 15 minutes (round to nearest 15 minutes)
   (1)	EVALUATION ACTIVITIES
   	Evaluation activities are assessments of patients' performance to assist in establishing diagnoses or to establish or reevaluate treatment plans.	1.4	1.3
   (2)	THERAPEUTIC ACTIVITIES
   	(i) Modalities
   	A modality does not require the continuous attendance of physical therapy personnel during a therapeutic activity	1.0	0.9
   	(ii) Procedures
   	A procedure does require the continuous attendance of physical therapy personnel during a therapeutic activity.	1.4	1.3
   (iii) Hydrotherapy			Continuous attend attendance of personnel
   			required	not required
   	Extremity or Body Whirlpool	1.4	1.3	0.9
   	Hubbard Tank or Therapeutic Pool	2.5	1.3	0.9

   		Initial 15 minutes	Additional 15 minutes (round to nearest 15 minutes)
   (3)	PATIENT EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES
   	Patient educational activities are used to instruct the patient or his attendant, family or their substitute in maintaining and improving the patient's condition.	1.4	1.3
   (4)	COMBINATION OF EVALUATION, THERAPEUTIC OR PATIENT EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES
   	Multiple evaluation, therapeutic, patient educational activities performed during a patient visit will be reported as a combination.
   	(i) Any number of modalities in combination	1.0	0.9
   	(ii) Any number of evaluation, therapeutic, or patient educational activities in combination	1.4	1.3
   	(iii) Hydrotherapy in combination with other activities:
   	Extremity or Body Whirlpool	1.4	1.3
   	Hubbard Tank or Therapeutic Pool	2.5	1.8
   (5)	HOME VISITS
   	A home visit is provided to an individual patient in a setting other than the physical therapist's office or work facility. The standard unit of measure for home visits includes the number of relative value units for the evaluation, therapeutic, or patient educational activity and for travel time.
   	(i) Evaluation, Therapeutic, or Educational Activities	1.4	1.3
   	(ii) Travel Time Travel time for home visits is the actual time spent by physical therapy personnel going to and from the home. Travel time for multiple home visits during a single trip is calculated by dividing the total number of relative value units for travel time by the number of patients treated during that trip.	1.3	1.3
   (6)	GROUP ACTIVITIES
   	A group activity is the occasion for service during which two or more patients simultaneously receive a therapeutic, evaluation, or patient educational activity. Group activities will be reported by counting the number of RVU's for one patient participating in the group activity session, and adding 0.1 RVU per session for each patient participating in the group activity.	1.3	1.3

5. (7) Notes

   1. (i) For further explanation of how to use the relative value units see the accompanying Schedule of Unit Values and Examples of Relative Value Unit Computations for Combination Activities.
   2. (ii) When multiple personnel are used during an entire activity period, additional 1.3 RVU's are recorded for each person for each 15-minute increment.
   3. (iii) The units of measure do not include wound dressing, debridement, exercise or other activities performed in conjunction with hydrotherapy.
   4. (iv) When computing an indiviudal's RVU's, the value should be rounded to the nearest one-tenth (e.g., 0.62 = 0.6, 0.68 = 0.7).

7510 Physical Therapy

(c) SCHEDULE OF UNIT VALUES

Note:

Activities that exceed 60 minutes are recorded by adding the appropriate values from the “additional 15 minutes” column.

(d) EXAMPLES OF RELATIVE VALUE UNIT COMPUTATIONS FOR COMBINATION ACTIVITIES