Senators urge feds to keep Stark Law exemptions; Medical technician sentenced for infecting patients with Hep C;

News From Around the Web

> Four Republican senators who are also doctors--Tom Coburn (Okla.), John Barrasso (Wyo.), Rand Paul (Ky.), and John Boozman (Ark.)--have sent a letter to congressional leaders urging them to reject efforts to eliminate the current Stark Law exemptions for in-office self-referrals, MedPage Today reported. "As medical practitioners with decades of combined experience in treating patients, we believe these changes would effectively force more patients to receive these services in hospital settings, thereby increasing costs to patients in private and public programs," they wrote in their letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Article

> A medical technician charged with infecting patients with the Hepatitis C virus while working in a catheterization lab in New Hampshire, as well as other facilities around the country, has been sentenced to 39 years in prison for tampering with a controlled substance and fraud. David Kwiatkowski, 34, had pleaded guilty in August to eight counts of obtaining an illegal substance by fraud and eight counts of tampering with a controlled substance. Article

Provider  News

> Clinical research offers hospitals a chance to contribute to medical science, provide cutting edge therapies to the community, enhance their images and give them a competitive advantage in the field. But community hospitals aren't capitalizing on clinical research to generate revenue, recruit and retain physicians, or enhance their impact on the community, a new GuideStar Clinical Trials Management survey found. Article

Health IT News

> The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has reversed its position on the timeline for implementing the Meaningful Use incentive program, and will propose an extension of Stage 2 through 2016 and beginning Stage 3 in 2017 for those providers that have competed at least two years in Stage 2. Article

And Finally... Trapped in a plane. Article