Senators Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) are urging the Senate Budget Committee to reject the cuts to Medicare’s home oxygen therapy benefit that were proposed in President Bush’s 2009 budget.

According to the American Association for Homecare, the senators distributed a “dear colleague” letter urging other senators to sign on to a letter to Senate Budget Committee chair Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and ranking member Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) that in part read:

“Since 1998, the home oxygen payment system has been subjected to repeated changes and cuts. The most significant of those cuts will be realized in the next 10 months, when payment reductions of nearly 20 percent will take effect through the implementation of the new competitive bidding rules and the imposition of a cap on Medicare payments after 36 months. We ask the Committee to weight the cumulative effect of these cuts and reject assumptions of additional funding reductions.”

The full text of the letter can be found as a PDF at the AAHomecare site.