In April of 2024, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) updated their list of Special Focus Facilities. Special Focus Facilities (SFFs) are “nursing homes that have a history of serious quality issues and are included in a special program to stimulate improvements in their quality of care.” These SFFs are divided into four distinct categories:

1. Current Special Focus Facilities
2. Special Focus Facility Candidates
3. Facilities That Have Graduated from the SFF Program
4. Facilities That Are No Longer in Medicare and Medicaid

For New Jersey, CMS provides the Department of Health with a list of candidate facilities, from which two facilities are selected. The following two nursing homes have been selected by CMS as New Jersey’s Special Focus Facilities, as of April 2024:

1. Silver Healthcare Center in Cherry Hill
   • Has been a Special Focus Facility for 18 months.
2. Cranford Park Care in Cranford
   • Has been a Special Focus Facility for 14 months.

Additionally, the following nursing homes in the state have been deemed candidates for the Special Focus Facility program. These are nursing homes that qualify to be deemed a Special Focus Facility, but were not selected:

1. New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home in Edison
   • Has been a Special Focus Facility candidate for 14 months.
2. Avant Rehabilitation and Care Center in Trenton
   • Has been a Special Focus Facility candidate for 13 months.
3. ProMedica Total Rehab in Piscataway
   • Has been a Special Focus Facility candidate for 12 months.
4. Troy Hills Center in Parsippany
   • Has been a Special Focus Facility candidate for 10 months.
5. Hammonton Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare in Hammonton
   • Has been a Special Focus Facility candidate for 7 months.
6. The Palace Rehabilitation and Care Center in Maple Shade
   • Has been a Special Focus Facility candidate for 7 months.
7. Merwick Care & Rehabilitation Center in Plainsboro
   • Has been a Special Focus Facility candidate for 6 months.
8. Little Brook Nursing and Convalescent Home in Califon
   • Has been a Special Focus Facility candidate for 5 months.
9. Mohawk Meadows in Lafayette
   • Has been a Special Focus Facility candidate for 3 months.
10. Sterling Manor in Maple Shade
    • Has been a Special Focus Facility candidate for 1 month.

The following nursing homes in the state are “graduates” from the Special Focus Facility program:

1. Premier Cadbury of Cherry Hill in Cherry Hill
2. Hamilton Grove Healthcare and Rehabilitation in Hamilton

Unfortunately, despite this Special Focus Facility program from CMS, many of our state’s nursing homes have failed to improve. This is in spite of significant state resources being expended to assist these facilities. Quoting a recent report from New Jersey’s Medicaid Fraud Division: “The failure of these nursing homes to improve their performance indicates that the SFF program is not working as intended. Despite pouring state resources into assisting these facilities, the SFF program failed to improve the quality of these nursing homes.”