In the meantime, there's a lot of chatter online and at healthcare IT conferences about what "meaningful use" means, and there have been plenty of complaints about unclear definitions to date.

Virtua CEO Miller predicts a wave of collaboration among hospitals because many lack the money to put in the software needed to comply with Obama's demands. No one wants to start incurring the penalties that begin in 2015.

"They will be looking for partners," Miller says, "because they won't be able to implement or afford this."

Do you Tweet. Follow me on Twitter . Follow everything from CIO Magazine .