[lbhnact]

No they were not. The quote, by David Blumenthal who designed the HITECH legistlation said this:

"Before you can create interoperability, you have to create operability"[1]

I'll leave it to you to decide whether this was a wise philosophy to underpin a major national IT project.

[1]http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/blumenthal-look-stage-1...

[dragonwriter]

It seems to be the exact opposite philosophy that HIPAA originally took in the effort to get financial/administrative transactions to electronic formats, which was essentially that mandating interoperability would drive mainstream use.