Hospitalist wRVU bonus
See what your RVU bonus would pay.
Your offer sheet has a base, a threshold, and a $/wRVU rate on it. Put those in with the wRVUs you expect for the year. You get the bonus, your total pay, and what the year paid you per wRVU, base included.
How the calculation worksCalculator · Your numbers
Your base pay plus wRVU bonus
Use the wRVUs you actually produced for a finished year, or your full-year estimate for an offer.
Ask about the threshold first
The recruiter will quote you the $/wRVU rate. The threshold is the number to ask about: every wRVU under it is already covered by your base, so if your census won’t get you past it, the rate never pays and what you’re really being offered is the base. The rate is worth arguing about once the threshold looks reachable.
Effective $/wRVU
Add the base and the bonus, then divide by every wRVU you produced that year. That’s the effective $/wRVU, the number for comparing two offers with different bases and thresholds (some call it implied or weighted $/wRVU). Run both offers at the same annual wRVUs and compare the effective rate.
No bonus and no cap
Some offers have no RVU component at all, just a base. The census cap is usually a verbal “we aim for 16” that flexes when someone’s out, so the list can grow and your pay doesn’t. Set the rate to zero in the tool, raise annual wRVUs, and the effective $/wRVU drops with every patient you add. The opposite deal is a straight per-wRVU contract: enter a base of zero and a threshold of zero and the pay rises and falls with the list.
Put the pay beside the schedule
A bigger salary on more shifts can be less per hour. Check shifts and hours before you call one offer higher.
Compare day and night payCommon questions
What happens below the threshold?
In the calculator, nothing: the bonus is zero and the year pays the base. In a group, a few quarters under the threshold usually means a conversation, and sometimes a smaller base at renewal. Ask how the base gets reset before you sign.
Can I compare two offers?
Yes. Run each at the same annual wRVUs, changing only the base, threshold, and rate, and compare annual pay and effective $/wRVU. Then look at how many shifts each one asks for. The nocturnist calculator puts two jobs side by side per hour.
Is the bonus rate the same as the effective $/wRVU?
No. The bonus rate pays only on wRVUs above the threshold. The effective $/wRVU spreads base and bonus over every wRVU in the year, which is why it can sit above the bonus rate.
How the calculation works
Base plus bonus
- Eligible wRVUs
- equals annual wRVUs - threshold, never below zero
- Bonus
- equals eligible wRVUs × bonus rate
- Annual pay
- equals guaranteed base + bonus
- Effective $/wRVU
- equals annual pay ÷ annual wRVUs
The math uses a guaranteed base, one annual threshold, and one bonus rate. Quality bonuses, benefits, taxes, bonus caps, and tiered rates aren’t in it. A recoverable draw, an advance you pay back out of later production, needs a different formula.
Also from Aclera
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More calculators
wRVU target
See what your wRVU target means per shift.
Enter a month of wRVUs and shifts, the shifts you plan to work, and your annual target. You get the year at that pace and the gap to the target per shift.
wRVUs per shift
See your wRVUs per shift and per scheduled hour.
Enter the wRVUs, shifts, and shift length from one period of your report. You get wRVUs per shift and per scheduled hour.
Nocturnist salary
Does the night job pay more per hour?
Enter annual pay, shifts, and hours for a day job and a night job. You get each one per shift and per scheduled hour, and the night premium.
Work RVUs by code
See the work RVU for the E/M codes you bill on the wards.
Work RVU, total RVU, and the Medicare national rate for the hospital E/M, critical care, prolonged care and advance care planning codes, from the current CMS fee schedule file.
Medicare data
See what Medicare paid for hospitalist care in 2024.
Medians and quartiles for Original Medicare payments, services and patients per hospitalist in 2024, nationally and by state. Payment for billed care, not salary.