WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration has backed off proposed Medicare cuts that would have led to $5 billion in reductions to nursing homes over five years.

The decision, which was announced last week by Medicare officials, followed a letter sent by Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman and other senators in June urging that the rule be scrapped.

According to Care Providers of Minnesota, the rule would have led to cuts next year of about $11 million in Minnesota and $770 million nationally.

Coleman, a Minnesota Republican, and Sen. Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat, led a letter signed by about three-dozen other senators sent to Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt opposing the cuts.