Understanding Your Hospice PEPPER

Have you looked at your agency’s Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Report (PEPPER)? Don’t even know what a PEPPER is? You should! In this video, CMS contractor Kimberly Hrehor, MHA, RHIA, CHC, director of the TMF Health Quality Institute provides information on how to access hospice comparative data reports and how they can give you a heads-up if you may be at risk for an audit.

According to TMF, the Office of Inspector General, Recovery Auditors, Medicare Administrative Contractors and other federal contractors are mining Medicare claims data in an effort to identify providers that may be at risk for fraud, waste and abuse. CMS is now producing an annual PEPPER for each hospice. Hospices are urged to review their reports to learn if they are outliers in a number of areas. Learn how to access your PEPPER then visit the PEPPER Resources Portal for a quick tour on how to access and review your agency-specific report.