2026 Hospice PEPPER Report

Every hospice organization receives valuable compliance data through the Hospice PEPPER Report, but understanding how to interpret and apply that information can be challenging. Learning how to identify high-risk target areas and respond proactively can help organizations reduce Medicare audit risk, strengthen documentation practices, and improve overall compliance.

PEPPER (Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Report) is a CMS-sponsored compliance and benchmarking tool that provides hospice-specific Medicare claims data to identify billing patterns that may indicate a higher risk for improper Medicare payments. The report compares a hospice's performance with state, MAC jurisdiction, and national percentiles to help organizations identify areas requiring further review and internal auditing. PEPPER is intended to support compliance programs and as proactive monitoring rather than determining whether improper payments actually occurred.