Will You Pass the PEPPER?

If you haven't noticed, CMS has a "new" measuring stick called PEPPER.  PEPPER stands for the Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Report (yes, somebody really reached for that acronym). New is somewhat of a relative term as PEPPER reports have been available to short term acute care hospitals (since 2002), long term acute care hospitals (since 2005), all short and long term care hospitals (2009-2010) and more recently, hospices, skilled nursing facilities, and most recently, home health agencies. 

Nonetheless, PEPPER is a report the compares three years of data statistics for CMS targeted areas, comparing your agency’s performance to that of others in the nation. The advertising is that upper management of the healthcare agency can look to compare their agency to those in the nation to see where they compare, and where they don’t. 

Additionally, CMS and its contractors have access to the PEPPER reports. This means that CMS will be watching for billing patterns and error rates. Also, Medicare will also be comparing your performance to that of others in the nation. 

You can review the PEPPER website by going here.