Government Walks Fine Line on HIT Regulation

"Am I aware that some vendors already built the interface five times, [and] they charged $10,000 to the lab or to somebody else for the next interface?" Mostashari said. "Yes. I'm aware of that. Is there an easy regulatory action that we could take without getting into every contract that everybody signed with everybody else? I don't see it."

Mostashari offered to sit with the questioner afterwards and go through what it actually would take to regulate every contract between every EHR vendor and every other party in the environment, and how difficult it would be to do that and avoid unintended consequences.

So if you're wondering whether the problem with healthcare IT is too little regulation, I suggest you heed Dr. Mostashari, who seems to have a keen grasp on how much regulation is too much.

Far better for Congress to turn its eye to some of the big vendors themselves, who apparently abuse this system and regulatory environment to line their pockets. They know who they are.