We reconsider an SIS epidemic model studied by Cui et al. [1]. The model is shown that saturation recovery leads to backward bifurcation, Hopf bifurcation and codimension 2 Bogdanov–Takens bifurcation. However, for the case when the Bogdanov–Takens bifurcation of codimension 2 is degenerate, the types and codimensions of Bogdanov–Takens bifurcation have not been investigated. In this paper we prove that this same model can undergo cusp type Bogdanov–Takens bifurcations of codimensions 3. Hence, more complex new phenomena, including degenerate Hopf bifurcation, degenerate homoclinic bifurcation and saddle–node bifurcation of limit cycles, exhibit. Furthermore, we get the bifurcation diagram of codimension 3 Bogdanov–Takens bifurcation with cusp type of the SIS epidemic model.