Providers should make sure they’re ready for the relaunch of the Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Report (PEPPER) tool, according to CMS.
In the past, PEPPERs provided easy access to agency-specific data on topics that might suggest improper billing, for example trends in comorbidity adjustments, therapy utilization and more.
But the PEPPER website has been offline for the past few years as CMS and its vendors retooled the system.
PEPPERs are currently only available for short-term acute care hospitals, but CMS expects to have PEPPERs accessible for home health, hospice and other providers in the coming months and is encouraging providers to make sure they’re ready to access the tool.
FROM CMS:
Authorized officials (AOs), access managers (AMs), and staff end users (SEUs) can access PEPPER through the
PEPPER Portal.
How to get access as an SEU:
- Sign in to the CMS Identity & Access (I&A) System using your existing NPPES or PECOS credentials.
- Request the PEPPER business function for your organization. The Comparative Billing Report business function is also available and can be requested at the same time.
- Your AO or AM must approve your request.
- Once approved, log in to the portal and download your organization’s report.
Take steps now to make sure you have access when we release your facility’s PEPPER: