---
kind: "section"
citation: "42 C.F.R. § 488.1115"
title: "42"
number: "488.1115"
heading: "Surveyor qualifications and prohibition of conflicts of interest."
url: "https://uscodex.org/cfr/42/488.1115"
---

# §488.1115. Surveyor qualifications and prohibition of conflicts of interest.

- (a) **Minimum qualifications.** Surveyors must meet minimum qualifications prescribed by CMS. Before any accrediting organization, State or Federal surveyor may serve on a hospice survey team (except as a trainee), he/she must have successfully completed the relevant CMS-sponsored Basic Hospice Surveyor Training Course, and additional training as specified by CMS.
- (b) **Disqualifications.** Surveyor(s) must disclose actual or perceived conflicts of interest prior to participating in a hospice program survey and be provided the opportunity to recuse themselves as necessary. Any of the following circumstances disqualifies a surveyor from surveying a particular hospice program:
  - (1) The surveyor currently serves, or, within the previous 2 years has served, with the hospice program to be surveyed as one of the following:
    - (i) **A direct employee.**
    - (ii) **An employment agency staff at the hospice program.**
    - (iii) An officer, consultant, or agent for the hospice program to be surveyed concerning compliance with conditions of participation specified in or in accordance with [sections 1861(dd)](/cfr/42/1861.md?p=dd) of the Act.
  - (2) **The surveyor has a financial interest or an ownership interest in the hospice program to be surveyed.**
  - (3) The surveyor has an immediate family member, as defined at [§ 411.351](/cfr/42/411.351.md) of this chapter, who has a financial interest or an ownership interest with the hospice program to be surveyed.
  - (4) The surveyor has an immediate family member, as defined at [§ 411.351](/cfr/42/411.351.md) of this chapter, who is a patient of the hospice program to be surveyed.

## Notes

### Source

Source: 86 FR 62425, Nov. 9, 2021, unless otherwise noted.

### Authority

Authority: 42 U.S.C 1302 and 1395hh.

### Source

Source: 53 FR 22859, June 17, 1988, unless otherwise noted.