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Home Health & Hospice Week

Oxygen:

APPOINTMENT COULD BOOST CHANCES OF CAP REPEAL

Published on Thu Jan 11, 2007

Oxygen stakeholders continue fight to kill DRA provision.

A Kansas senator who's been on the front lines of the Medicare home oxygen debate now has a seat on the powerful Senate Finance Committee.

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) has been selected to become the last member of the committee that oversees Medicare.

Roberts vowed to focus on a broad swath of health topics. "As a member of the Finance Committee, I will be a strong voice for our Kansas hospitals, home health providers, doctors, nurses, and other health care providers to ensure they have the necessary resources to continue to provide quality health care," Roberts says in a statement.

In August, the Kansas senator introduced a bill (S. 3814) that would repeal the 36-month cap on Medicare payments for home oxygen required in the 2005 Deficit Reduction Act.

The bill's seven co-sponsors include another new Senate Finance member, Ken Salazar (D-CO). The House version of the bill (H.R. 5513), introduced in May by Reps. Joe Schwarz (R-MI) and Tom Price (R-GA), has 83 additional co-sponsors.
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