Critical Access Hospitals PEPPER will be available via PEPPER Resources Portal at https://pepperfile.cbrpepper.org.

Notice: Change in CAH PEPPER Delivery Method
At the request of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), beginning with the Critical Access Hospital (CAH) Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Report (PEPPER) version Q4FY18, released April 5, 2019, the CAH PEPPERs are available for access through a secure portal at https://pepperfile.cbrpepper.org. Previously the CAH PEPPERs were uploaded to QualityNet Administrators and those who have basic user accounts with the PEPPER recipient role. An email with instructions for accessing the CAH PEPPER was sent to CAH QualityNet Administrators April 5.

To download or save to your computer any of the files on this page, right click on the file name (link) and select "Save Target As...". To receive updates on training and other resources, please join our email list.

Current PEPPER User's Guide:

• Critical Access Hospital PEPPER User’s Guide (PDF, 9th Edition)

Jurisdictions:

• View a list of the 12 MAC jurisdictions and the number of providers in each jurisdiction in total and by state for PEPPER Q4FY18 (XLS, updated 3/28/2019).

PEPPER TRAINING SESSIONS

• Access a complete series of PEPPER training sessions, available as ten “chapters” for ease of access. A review of a sample CAH PEPPER is also available.
• May 15, 2019 CAH PEPPER Review: This session reviews the new Q4FY18 Critical Access Hospital (CAH) PEPPER, released April 5, 2019. Download the PowerPoint slides (PDF) or the Q&As (PDF) for this PEPPER review.
• May 16, 2018 CAH PEPPER Review: This session reviews the new Q4FY17 CAH PEPPER, released in April 2018. Download the PowerPoint slides (PDF) or the Q&As (PDF) for this PEPPER review.

Demonstration PEPPER:

• Demonstration PEPPER version Q4FY18 (XLS, updated 3/28/2019)

Other Resources:

• Refer to this document for guidance on how to create a listing of patients included in the PEPPER target areas (PDF).
• View a list of CAH target areas (PDF, updated 5/7/2020).
• History of Target Area Changes: This document identifies revisions to existing target areas that have been implemented for each respective release since the Q4FY15 release. It includes a description of the revision and the expected impact in terms of the number of providers that have "reportable data" (numerator count of 11+) for the target area. This document will be updated on an ongoing basis.
• Access the Medicare Claims Processing Manual (PDF)
• View this slide presentation (PPT, updated 7-11-2013) on percents and percentiles to help understand the differences between “percent” and “percentile” and how they are used in PEPPER.
• View a demonstration (DOC, updated 12-10-2014) Compare Targets report, with associated hospital target area data and graph.