As home health and hospice providers prepare to review their latest PEPPER reports, there is an important administrative step that should not be overlooked. Agencies are being asked to access the PEPPER portal and verify which individuals within their organization are authorized to view and manage these reports. Taking the time to confirm user access now will help ensure the right team members can obtain and analyze this valuable data when it becomes available.
In this article, we’ll outline what agencies need to know about managing PEPPER portal access and provide helpful resources to guide you through the process.
The latest PEPPER reports for hospice providers are now available through the Hospice PEPPER portal. If you haven’t accessed your report yet, now is a good time to log in and review your data. To log in to the PEPPER portal, click here. You can also access the PEPPER User Guide by clicking here.
To become a Staff End User (SEU) and access your organization’s PEPPER:
- Log in to the CMS I&A System using your existing NPPES or PECOS credentials.
- Request the PEPPER business function under your organization.
- Obtain approval from your organization’s AO or AM (only AOs and AMs can approve SEU access).
- Once approved, log in to the PEPPER Portal using the same credentials to download your organization’s PEPPER.
PEPPER reports are an important resource, especially for providers who are new to hospice or home health. While hospice reports are currently available and home health reports will be released later, both serve the same purpose. PEPPER uses data drawn directly from your billing records to evaluate specific performance measures and target areas. It then compares your agency’s results to those of other providers within your Medicare jurisdiction, as well as to national benchmarks, helping you identify areas that may warrant further review or monitoring.
These calculated targets are designed to help identify agencies whose results differ significantly from their peers. By highlighting these outliers, the data can assist medical reviewers in determining which agencies may warrant additional review or closer examination of their billing and documentation practices.
For hospice providers, these calculations are based on claims data. While the hospice-specific information comes from hospice claims, the non-hospice spending measures incorporate Part B and Part D claims submitted by other Medicare providers and suppliers who furnish services or medications to beneficiaries while they are receiving hospice care.
Additional measures included in the report will be covered in a future Monday Minute. These include familiar indicators such as extended lengths of stay, live discharges, and other key utilization trends. While we have not yet had the opportunity to review the latest hospice report firsthand, we will be analyzing the data in the coming weeks and will provide a more detailed overview and insights in an upcoming Monday Minute.
Home health PEPPER reports are expected to be released later this month. In the meantime, we encourage both home health and hospice providers to log into the portal, verify their access permissions, and ensure the appropriate individuals within the organization can retrieve and review these important reports once they become available.
Additional PEPPER resources include a Quick Reference Guide, Frequently Asked Questions, and the PECOS Help Desk. Authorized Officials and Access Managers can find step-by-step instructions in the I&A Quick Reference Guide and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
If users need help identifying their AO or AM, or have questions about their request, they may contact the PECOS External User Services (EUS) Help Desk.
Healthcare Provider Solutions is here to support you with PEPPER report interpretation, quality program analysis, and other compliance and performance initiatives. If you need assistance understanding your data or identifying areas for improvement, our team is available to help. Please feel free to reach out to us.
We also invite you to join us at our upcoming educational events. In the coming weeks, we will be hosting a two-day hospice workshop in Nashville, followed by our two-day home health workshop in August for HPS Alliance members. We would love the opportunity to have you participate.
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