Overview of the Hospice Special Focus Program (SFP)

Memorandum Summary

• Through increased regulatory oversight and enforcement, the SFP will address issues that could place hospice beneficiaries at risk of receiving poor quality of care.   
• The memo outlines the hospice SFP criteria and the roles and responsibilities for CMS, the state survey agencies, and the accrediting organizations.
• Hospice programs that are unable to resolve the deficiencies that brought them into the SFP and cannot meet the SFP completion criteria, may be considered for termination from the Medicare program.