PEPPER To Be Relaunched for All Medicare Facility Types

The Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Report (PEPPER) will be relaunching in the coming months for all Medicare facility types, including hospitals, post-acute care providers, and specialty facilities. PEPPER is a free tool that helps providers review their Medicare billing data so they can identify issues before problems arise and support accurate claims.

The tool can be used to:

• Spot billing patterns that may need review or improvement;
• Identify areas that may need closer monitoring or internal audits;
• Find services that may be under-coded or over-coded; and
• Track trends like longer patient stays.

How to Get Your PEPPER

Authorized officials (AO), access managers (AM), and staff end users (SEU) can download their organization’s report from the PEPPER Portal.

How to become 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.  

More Information:

• See the I&A Quick Reference Guide and FAQs: Step-by-step instructions for AOs and AMs.
• Contact the External User Services Help Desk.