31 - Dr. Scott Manaker Part 1 - The RUC, and Determining How Much Physicians Get Paid

Summary: Today’s episode is the first of a two part conversation I had with Dr. Scott Manaker, who is a an attending Pulmonary and Critical Care physician at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. I first heard about Dr. Manaker being at Penn when I fell down the rabbit hole researching a fascinating part of the U.S Healthcare system – a group called the Specialty Society Relative Value Scale Update Committee, or the “RUC” for short. Dr. Manaker is a member of this group, and I felt really privileged to be able to sit down with him and pick his brain. I think you’ll find that rather than a secret organization that is sneakily carving up the healthcare dollars and distributing them as they see fit, they are a tenacious, dedicated group of specialists who are performing difficult, painstaking, and often thank-less work. Links AMA - RUC Websites https://www.ama-assn.org/rvs-update-committee-ruc https://www.ama-assn.org/about-us/composition-rvs-update-committee-ruc https://www.ama-assn.org/rbrvs-overview Articles Discussing RUC - some critical, some balanced https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/julyaugust-2013/special-deal/ https://replacetheruc.net/key-articles-not-here/ https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/the-little-known-decision-makers-for-medicare-physicans-fees/?scp=1&sq=economix%20REinhardt&st=cse&_r=0