The saber rattling of antitrust is reemerging, but I'm not convinced that it's the right tool to break up the biggest "walled garden" in healthcare because it just risks spawning more (smaller) walled gardens and healthcare is so vastly different than other infrastructure platforms.

Ultimately, isn't the real issue - once again - data interoperability? We did have a really big bite of that apple, but as you found out in The Digital Doctor (2015), we completely whiffed - and we're still living with the Frankenstein monster Dr. Brailer was afraid of.

Excerpt - The Digital Doctor [2015]:

"Dr. Bob Wachter: I asked Brailer an unfair question: Given his well-known skepticism about too muscular a federal role, if he had still been ONC director in 2008, would he have turned down the $30 billion?"

"Dr. David Brailer: No, but I would have spent the money on standards, interoperability, a ‘Geek Squad’ to help with training and implementation, and creating a cloud-based ‘medical Internet.’ I never would have spent money on direct subsidies to providers. We’ve built the Frankenstein I was most afraid of."