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

Current PEPPER User's Guide:

• Critical Access Hospital PEPPER User’s Guide (PDF, 11th Edition)

PEPPER TRAINING SESSIONS

• April 2022 CAH PEPPER Review: This webinar reviews the PEPPER for Critical Access Hospitals, version Q4FY21, released in early April, 2022. This webinar includes the history/background of PEPPER, a high-level review of the target areas, a walk-through of a sample PEPPER, and guidance for accessing the PEPPER. Download the PowerPoint slides (PDF), transcript (PDF) or the Q&As (PDF) for this PEPPER update.
• Access a complete series of PEPPER training sessions, available as “chapters” for ease of access. A review of a sample CAH PEPPER is also available.
• New PEPPER Format: This session reviews changes to the PEPPER for greater accessibility, cleaner presentation and improved readability. Download the PowerPoint slides (PDF) or the transcript (PDF) for this PEPPER recording.

Data Resources

• National Target Area Analysis
• National Top 20 DRGs
• State Target Area Analysis
• State Top DRGs
• Peer Group Bar Charts

Demonstration PEPPER:

• Demonstration PEPPER version Q4FY21 (XLSX)

Jurisdictions:

• View a list of the 12 MAC jurisdictions and the number of providers in each jurisdiction in total and by state for PEPPER Q4FY21 (XLSX).

Other Resources:

• Refer to this document for guidance on how to create a listing of patients included in the PEPPER target areas (PDF).
• History of Target Area Changes (PDF, updated 7/15/2020): 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.