CMS releases CAH payment patterns reports for FY 2025

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released its fiscal year 2025 Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Reports, or PEPPERs, for critical access hospitals. The reports help hospitals review their billing data to ensure accurate claims. They can be used to identify billing patterns that may need improvement, locate areas that may need audits or additional monitoring, find diagnosis-related groups that may be under- or over-coded, and track areas where patient stays are becoming longer. The reports can be accessed by authorized officials, access managers and users with the staff end user business function through CMS' PEPPER Portal. CMS also has a guide and FAQ available for users on accessing the PEPPER. Additionally, CMS said it will host a webinar this summer for CAHs and short-term acute care hospitals.