Alternative Methods of Developing a Relative Value Scale of Physicians' Services: Final Report

摘要

The report presents the results of work completed during the second year of The Urban Institute's project, 'Alternative Methods of Developing a Relative Value Scale of Physicians' Services'. The first-year's work was concerned primarily with the technical aspects of alternative methods of constructing relative value scales. Five basic methods were evaluated: charge-based methods, which build relative values from data on physicians' charges; the statistical cost function approach, which would derive relative values from the paramenters of multiproduct cost function for physicians' services; time-based methods, which use data on the amount of time physicians spend performing various procedures; micro-costing and time/motion study methods, which use information obtained by detailed, on-site observation of the process of producing physicians' services; and consensus development/social preference methods, which rely on expert opinion and/or group decision making to arrive at relative values.