If this can save so much money why isn't the health care industry already doing it? Are they really that stupid or are all the promises of big savings not likely to pan out?
It's a perfect example of the network effect. The savings can only
materialize if everybody agrees on the same standard, getting past the
usual 'what we are currently doing must be the standard' bickering.
Standardization efforts are hard because they combine technology,
business and cultural issues. A successful standard has to find a
balance between negative feedback of skepticism and low expectations
resulting in unsatisfactory outcomes, and hyper-enthusiasm that can
bring over-specified unworkable monsters.
Historically, the best outcomes occurred in a relatively uncrowded
fields where early players made a wise strategic commitment to
interoperability (c.f. the "rough concensus and working code" mantra of
Internet standards).
The government might be a good neutral referee if it plays its hand well.
By the way, a working DRM would actually be a desirable feature of the electronic health record system---only you and your delegates should control the access to the records. It will be hard for the government to propose such access restrictions, because of the public distrust towards the digital art content control and government secrecy.
