I have written several times about how antiquated computing is in the area of health care.

Politicians are starting to take notice of the same thing. (Registration Required)

Fortunately this is a bipartisan recognition. The Post comment above is written by the Republican Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist (right, from CNN), and a leader of the minority Democrats, Hillary Clinton.

But what are they really proposing?

Cut through the boilerplate from both sides (to the left is the other side) and this is the phrase that stands out:

We need interoperability standards so systems can communicate with each other.

The fact is that any effort to move toward smart card technology by any insurance carrier will run afoul of the fact that other carriers won't support the specifics. This means doctors will be reading smart cards for one carrier but patients using other carriers will still require manual intervention on everything. So where are the savings?

Worse you could get carriers opting for different standards, trying to force doctors and hospitals to choose one-or-the-other.

If insurance companies want to play this game they should go whole-hog and start buying medical networks, like hospital chains. That would enable them to create standards that are enforceable.

This is not the optimum solution, of course. The idea of having a Cigna hospital, or an Aetna hospital, sounds silly. The idea of having to change doctors because they're in the wrong network seems wrong.

But at this point, whatever it takes to get standards and real computing solutions into the medical industry is a good thing. Whether those standards are imposed by government or a private company is irrelevant to the essential need.