How to make your PEPPER report work for You!
PEPPER is an electronic data report that contains a hospital’s claim data statistics for Medicare. It focuses on DRGs and discharges at high risk for improper payment due to billing, coding and/or admission necessity issues. This data can help hospital’s anticipate issues that the RACs will be keying in on.
Data in PEPPER are presented in tabular form, as well as in graphs that depict the hospital’s billing trends over time. Hospital’s should access their PEPPER and understand what trends are present. Keep in mind the PEPPER can help direct a hospital to areas of potential “over-billing” as well as “under-billing.”
Your hospital PEPPER is available via a secure file exchange based on the schedule noted below:
| Provider Type | Distribution Date |
|---|---|
| Short-term acute care hospitals | Quarterly, on or about November 24, 2011, February 24, May 24 and August 24, 2012 |
| Long-term acute care hospitals | Annually, on or about March 26, 2012 |
| Critical access hospitals | Annually, on or about March 26, 2012 |
| Inpatient psychiatric facilities | Annually, on or about March 26, 2012 |
| Inpatient rehabilitation facilities | Annually, on or about September 23, 2011 and March 26, 2012 |
Contact an A&F Advisor
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