It won't be easy to develop a national network to exchange electronic records. In fact, federal agencies and healthcare providers will be taking deep breaths and counting to 10 before it actually happens. In the latest stumbling block over the march toward an electronic world, it is looking like healthcare providers will have to comply with federal information security requirements before an exchange of electronic records begins.

And the National Health Information Network, which allows federal agencies and private-sector providers to share records is still looking for a security standard that meets everyone's needs.

It's definitely a Catch-22. The government can't force private sector providers to implement standards developed for federal agencies, according to Vish Sankaran, program director for federal health architecture at the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology. The office, part of the Health and Human Services Department, is in the tough position of coordinating efforts to build the network.

"What happens when records [are transferred] outside the federal agency's network? Is the healthcare provider that receives the records required to follow FISMA regulations? That's a showstopper at this point," Sankaran said.

Billions of dollars have been promised in the stimulus package to develop an e-Health data base. It would include a number of major agencies involved with healthcare, such as the Department of Health and Human Services, the Social Security Administration, the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Without a blueprint to go forward anytime soon, the idea may just be another one to end up in cyberspace.

So for now, the promises may sound good from the Obama administration, but the reality is something else. And it sure will be interesting to see how these problems are resolved.

For more on the state of e-Health:
- check out this nextgov.com article