Home Oxygen Community Applauds Senator Blanche Lincoln for Leading Bi-Partisan Effort to Formally Oppose Proposed Cuts to Medicare's Home Oxyg...(life. Excerpts from the Lincoln-Rober...),Health

Excerpts from the Lincoln-Roberts letter to the Senate Budget Committee, opposing further reductions to Medicare's home oxygen benefit, include:

"We believe that further payment reductions this year, coming on top of several recent cuts and an estimated 20 percent reduction that will take effect over the next several months under current law, could jeopardize care for some patients and make benefit reform much more difficult to achieve."

"Home oxygen therapy, when properly prescribed and used, can slow lung degeneration and prevent hospitalizations, saving scarce Medicare dollars."

"We ask the Committee to weigh the cumulative effect of these cuts and reject assumptions of additional funding reductions."

The Council for Quality Respiratory Care is a group of the nation's leading home oxygen therapy providers and manufacturers, representing a majority of the more than one million Medicare patients who depend on the home oxygen benefit for their care in order to live in an independent environment. CQRC members include Air Products, AirSep Corporation, American HomePatient, Apria Healthcare, Invacare, Lincare, Pacific Pulmonary Services, Praxair, Inc., Respironics, Inc., ResMed, Rotech Healthcare Inc. and Sunrise Medical, Inc.