Physicians and hospitals review the PEPPER (Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Report). This report focuses on provider-specific Medicare data. The Mirth Manual also learned of a new patient-specific report.
Jamison Williams, MD, urologist at Inflow Medical Center in Camden, NJ is excited to discuss the patient-focused, hospital-based, all-payer report called the Prompt Proper Payments Promotes Poised Payer Plans.
The new report has all “p” words without any prepositions or conjunctions, so the Mirth Manual team wanted an explanation.
Dr. Williams explained, “I am fascinated with the letter ‘p.’ I believe my interest in ‘p’ words began when I was at Palmer Preschool Preparatory Partnership as a child. As a urologist, my world is also filled with ‘p’ words. I work with the renal papilla, pyramids and pelvis--not to mention the parenchyma. And the kidney produces pee. With the Prompt Proper Payments Promotes Poised Payer Plans, it’s like ordering a sandwich. You want the sandwich delivered promptly and properly.”
With all the ‘p’ words, we wondered what snappy term will the report be called? Dr. Williams comments, “Our medical executive committee is working on a catchy way to identify the report. It’s hard to pronounce it as an acronym because there are 7 ‘p’ words. We may call it the P-7 Report which sounds catchier that the Pee-Pee-Pee-Pee – Pee-Pee-Pee Report.”
It’s understandable that patients and hospitals want prompt and proper payments. However, what are the fundamental differences between the PEPPER and the P-7?
Dr. Williams continued, “The PEPPER sounds like the spice, and P-7 sounds like a tongue twister. PEPPER has “report” in the name, so referring to it is as a PEPPER report is redundant. The P-7 has 7 words all beginning will the letter ‘p.’ It’s not easy to pronounce as an acronym. And there are no prepositions or conjunctions in the name. These are the primary differences.”
Tongue twister or not, if P-7 helps payers to be poised for prompt and proper payments, the Mirth Manual will be tickled pink. We’ll follow P-7’s progress. For more about hospital operations and efficiency, read this Chief Medical Officer's plan to increase completion of clinical progress notes with sine waves.