Program for Evaluation Payment Patterns Electronic Report (PEPPER)

The Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Report (PEPPER) is an electronic data report containing hospital-specific data for 13 target areas — specific Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) and discharges that have been identified as at high risk for payment errors.

PEPPER is developed under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) by the Hospital Payment Monitoring Program (HPMP) Quality Improvement Organization Support Center (QIOSC), which is TMF Health Quality Institute (TMF). TMF provides all Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) with hospital-specific data for short-stay, acute-care inpatient prospective payment system (PPS) hospitals within their states quarterly. These data are intended to assist QIOs in their HPMP efforts to identify and prevent payment errors by working with inpatient PPS hospitals within their state. The overall goal of HPMP is to reduce the Medicare payment error rate within each state as well as nationally.

Short-Term, Acute-Care Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Report (ST PEPPER) User’s Guide - July 2006

The Colorado Foundation for Medical Care (CFMC), the Medicare quality improvement organization for Colorado, prepared this material under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The contents do not necessarily reflect CMS Policy.