WASHINGTON--Reps. Mike Ross, D-Ark., and Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., have sent a sign-on letter to their colleagues requesting that reform of the Medicare home oxygen benefit be included in health care reform legislation this year. 
 
Addressed to the leaders of key committees in the House of Representatives, the letter also urges no further cuts to oxygen therapy.
 
Ross, a former pharmacy and HME owner, is expected to introduce a bill based on the New Oxygen Coalition’s long-term oxygen reform proposal.  (For more, see “Get Oxygen Reform to the Hill, Proponents Say.”)

According to an update from the American Association for Homecare, the bill is being drafted into legislative language and should be dropped “shortly.”
 
Among its changes, the oxygen reform proposal would eliminate the 36-month cap on oxygen,  exempt oxygen from competitive bidding and recognize the services required in providing home oxygen therapy. 
 
The deadline for House members to sign on to the letter is Friday, June 12, at noon.
 
The signatures will be sent to the chairs and ranking members of the three House committees with jurisdiction over Medicare and health reform. At a meeting this morning, the chairmen of those committees briefed the House Democratic Caucus on the timing of health reform and confirmed they were “on track to introduce legislation shortly.”
 
According to a joint statement from Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.; Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif.; and Education and Labor Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., “We anticipate committee action on health reform in the coming weeks, with legislation on the House floor prior to the August district work period.”
 
Ross serves on the Energy and Commerce committee, and Meek serves on the Ways and Means committee.
 
For a copy of the sign-on letter, see the AAHomecare Web site.