PRESS RELEASE | February 14, 2025
LeadingAge Reax: CMS Ceases Implementation of Hospice Special Focus Program (SFP)
Home » LeadingAge Reax: CMS Ceases Implementation of Hospice Special Focus Program (SFP)
Contact: Colleen Knudsen
cknudsen@leadingage.org 202-508-1215
For a SFP to succeed, good execution is critical; on this, CMS has failed miserably.
February 14, 2025 Washington, DC — Statement from Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO, LeadingAge, the association of nonprofit providers of aging services, on today’s announcement from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that implementation of the Hospice Special Focus Program (SFP) for CY 2025 has ceased so that the agency may further evaluate the program:
“We wholly support the creation of a special focus program, in both spirit and intent–a point we have emphasized repeatedly since the passage of the Hospice ACT of 2020, which authorized the SFP’s creation.
For a SFP to succeed, good execution is critical; on this, CMS has failed miserably.
The agency’s decision today to cease implementation of the SFP for CY 2025 for further review follows years of advocacy in which we urged CMS to revise its approach, coupled with more recent legal pressure. It is a significant win for all providers, and for all Americans seeking quality hospice care.”
About LeadingAge:
We represent more than 5,400 nonprofit aging services providers and other mission-driven organizations serving older adults that touch millions of lives every day. Alongside our members and 36 partners in 41 states, we use advocacy, education, applied research, and community-building to make America a better place to grow old. Our membership encompasses the entire continuum of aging services, including skilled nursing, assisted living, memory care, affordable housing, retirement communities, adult day programs, community-based services, hospice, and home-based care. We bring together the most inventive minds in the field to lead and innovate solutions that support older adults wherever they call home. For more information visit leadingage.org
