You have to figure it out for yourself, pick the best path you can determine at the moment, and then have the freedom to quickly make changes as necessary. Moving from a paper environment to an electronic process is not a simple process. It has far reaching consequences that few of us could foresee. As the network users learn these painful lessons we have found that it is necessary to both teach newcomers and to remind ourselves frequently. Health care is a complex industry and we are still learning how electronc commerce impacts this business.
Education is a necessary portion of the process if it is to success.
I need to emphasize that most of the payers who initially formed UHIN as well as the providers, were, and still are, fierce competitors. Each entity that bought a seat on the board had one vote. As I mention before, consensus politics is very different than majority rule politics. As other industries have learned, the successful deployment of electronic commerce in a new industry requires that partners listen to each other and meet their data needs to the greatest extent possible. The consensus decision assisted this new way of doing business.