[rysulliv]

This is the type of industry that really needs that type of standardization and enforcement of it. I can fully understand why the government wanted to step in and help enforce that standardization for a greatest benefit of all involved, and I can not really think of an alternative to the cash incentive to get people to do it. Can anyone else offer up a reasonable alternative?

[dr_]

Getting certification and offering a $44K incentive are different things. I can understand the former being required of software companies - but the medical providers aren't the one who have to seek certification, they have to purchase the software and are being given an incentive to do so, because there isn't otherwise an obvious cost benefit for them to switch over. I feel the software company should provide the cost benefit for the medical provider to switch over. Free market competition, without incentives thrown in, would eventually allow that.