As required under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, CMS has established a hospice special focus program (SFP) in the Calendar Year (CY) 2024 Home Health Prospective Payment System (HH PPS) final rule (88 FR 77676). Through increased regulatory oversight and enforcement of the selected poor performing hospice programs, the SFP will address issues that could place hospice beneficiaries at risk of receiving poor quality of care. The hospice SFP is like the current Special Focus Facility (SFF) program in place for nursing homes.
As many nursing homes refer residents to hospice programs and may receive questions from residents or their families, it will be important to keep informed if there are noted quality of care issues.
CMS believes the SFP will establish an equitable approach utilizing hospice survey findings and other quality indicators related to performance to ensure that hospices are accountable for providing unsafe or poor-quality care to patients. Hospice programs that do not meet the SFP completion criteria may be considered for additional enforcement actions, including termination from the Medicare program.
CMS expects to post the following information to their SFP website at least annually: - A list of eligible candidates for potential selection in the Hospice SFP,
- Hospices selected for the SFP, and
- Hospice status in the SFP indicated by one of the following classifications:
- Terminated from the Medicare Program.