A method and apparatus are disclosed for improving SPS operation in a wireless communication system. The method includes configuring an user equipment (UE) with a downlink (DL) assignment or an uplink (UL) grant through a PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) addressed by a SPS C-RNTI (Semi-Persistent Scheduling Cell Radio Network Temporary Identity). The method also includes receiving, at the UE, a reconfiguration message for a SPS (Semi-Persistent Scheduling) operation in a higher layer, such as a RRC (Radio Resource Control) layer. The method further includes reconfiguring, at the UE, the SPS operation based on the reconfiguration message if the reconfiguration message includes a release of the SPS operation.