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Technology spending for hardware, software and consulting services accounts for a significant portion of most health care providers budgets today, especially since the Obama Stimulus Plan and HITECH Act are incentivizing providers to implement electronic health records. In a perfect world, technology works perfectly, improves efficiency and the quality of care and makes life easier for the provider. However, the real world is not perfect and things can, and do, go wrong with technology products and services after you purchase and/or license them from third party vendors. Technology contracts generally are written by the vendors and consultants. Unfortunately, many technology contracts fall short of giving providers adequate protection and often contain hidden pitfalls and costs. Despite this fact, many providers never give these contracts to experienced health lawyers to help them negotiate better terms and protections for their high-tech investments BEFORE signing. This is a potentially costly practice. Every health care provider should be concerned with at least the following FOUR KEY ISSUES, which should be addressed in any technology contract:Warranties and Limitations of Liability: Despite elaborate sales presentations, technology contracts typically disclaim most, if not all, warranties and limit the liability of vendors to only refunding all or part of the purchase or license price paid for the technology. Such refunds are inadequate to protect the average provider when problems arise. A technology vendor should be required to give a written warranty in the contract that its product will perform in accordance with documented standards and for a reasonable period of time. At a minimum, this time period should be long enough for the provider to evaluate the technology in its operations. A better solution is to require a warranty for the useful life of the technology, or as long as there is a support and maintenance service agreement in place. A vendor also should not be allowed contractually to limit its liability on default only to return of the purchase price. If a provider suffers actual damages caused by the technology, the vendor should be required, in writing, to stand behind its product and services and reimburse such damages. A reasonable compromise is to require the vendor at least to tender the limits of its insurance coverage, which creates minimal additional risk to the vendor while better protecting the provider.Payments & Performance: A provider should not agree to pay the full purchase price up front, as is often a contract requirement, leaving the vendor with little incentive to complete its responsibilities. The parties should mutually agree in advance upon a project timetable with milestone targets for delivery and implementation of the technology. Payments should be made in installments conditioned upon reaching the targets. In addition, providers should build in testing rights, in order to evaluate whether the technology is performing as promised. The provider always should have the final say in whether a test provides a successful outcome and whether the final payment should be made to the vendor.Support and Maintenance: A technology hardware purchase or software license is only as good as the support and maintenance that goes along with it. The vendor should be willing to provide support for at least a defined useful life of the technology. Several questions should be answered in a written support agreement. Are updates or upgrades provided without additional charge? Will the vendor perform on-site or off-site support and maintenance? Will the provider pay a monthly fee plus an hourly charge or is there only an hourly charge? Does the hourly charge differ depending on when or what level of support is needed? Do the charges increase over the term of the support agreement? What is the vendor agreeing to support? Will changes made to the technology by the provider automatically terminate the warranty or support obligations? Unless the contract is specific regarding essential issues, a provider may find itself paying for less or different support and/or maintenance services than needed or expected.Confidentiality: Confidentiality of patient health information is a critical issue. Federal HIPAA law has a variety of privacy and security rules providers and their business associates must follow. In addition, some states, including Florida, have enacted legislation that requires entities that conduct business in the state and which maintain computerized data that contains personal information to provide notice to any resident if there is a breach of security. A technology contract should specify if the vendor will have access to any of the confidential patient information. A health care provider must require the vendor and its employees to maintain the confidentiality of such information under federal and many state laws. The technology contract also should expressly protect the confidentiality of provider trade secrets and other proprietary information to which a vendor or consultant may have access.Although technology contracts may appear intimidating, as they frequently are presented by vendors in small print and columned format, leading providers to believe they are non-negotiable forms, this is not the case in most instances. Investing the time and resources to have a health law attorney experienced in technology contracting review and help to negotiate contracts for hardware purchases, software licenses, maintenance and support, as well as technology consulting services, can save providers significant expense, disappointment and damages should the technology products or services not perform as promised.

Many established companies have feared outsourcing their SEO because they think that having an optimization process would harm their privacy. Additionally, they believe that an outsider company might be a threat to their companies’ secrets. That is why some companies have chosen to conduct self-SEO to avoid their secrets being leaked or being exposed to the public, especially to their competitors.Self-SEO is undeniably cheaper than outsourcing an SEO project to those that specialize in this field. With this step, you don’t have to deal with hiring costly experts because you have IT professionals inside your company (with little SEO skill to handle your optimization) to do the job. However, this cheap process lacks the special procedure a regular optimization has (keyword research, proper link building, article content writing), making it inefficient and inept.Reselling fad, self-SEO, and why US companies fear outsourcing their SEONo doubt about it, in-house optimizers are as good as SEO experts. However, these in-house optimizers do not have the full capability to duplicate the skill of experts from SEO companies. Although they handle their websites’ physical rankings well (DA, PR), they fall short on achieving an exemplary online reputation (we all know that physical rankings like domain authority, Page Rank, and search engine positions are all useless without an established good online reputation). Moreover, online reputation is only achievable through focused and undivided SEO. That is why some companies who choose this thrifty move hire people from SEO industries, or those who have expertise in this field.The SEO Reselling business is not a secret anymore to majority of businesses here in the United States. They are already aware that some SEO agents roaming around the streets and knocking on store doors, messaging on email and convincing owners through telephone, are only SEO Resellers getting their services from higher business entities called providers. The only thing that remains a secret to them is who these Resellers’ providers are. In addition, this Reseller fad has created an additional alarm to business owners; outsourcing an SEO (which means their business online strategies) to unknown optimizers creates skepticism and fear, that doing a self-SEO is safer for them in terms of keeping their company secrets hidden and intact inside their own premises.There is no way of knowing who these companies’ providers are because they are bound by an agreement called White Label SEO that prohibits them from revealing the backend’s name. However, it is your prerogative as a client to know about their skill and capability in launching and handling an efficient SEO campaign. Companies can ask for an established and valid portfolio (live optimized websites and not just a written URL from some unknown galaxy), and a systematic live optimization process explaining the importance and details of each process and terminologies to know their competence over other providers and even self-SEO.Professionally speaking, outsourcing your SEO to seasoned, trustworthy, and capable SEO companies are better than doing the cheap self-SEO process. Achieving full-blown and complete SEO success can only be possible with focused optimization, a process self-SEO method cannot provide.

What to watch out for while choosing car insurance?The most important criteria include the five “C”s. Here’s a brief description of each:• Claim settlement policy – The true test of an insurance company is at the time of an actual insurance claim. This is possible to check by looking at the company’s past records of claim resolution. Now is the time to check if the existing insurance can be transferred to another insurance company without loss of benefits already paid for.• Coverage – What is the right coverage for you? Usually, car insurance policies cover third party liability and own damage. According to the Motor Vehicles Act, it is mandatory to opt for third party liability insurance cover while own damage is optional. Opting for both is the standard procedure since they cover any damage due to accidents and loss from third party mishaps. Most insurance companies offer “add-ons” with the basic policy.• Customer service – Thanks to technology, insurance policies are now issued instantly. Besides this, other issues such as changes in policy or cancellations are processed quickly. In the event of a claim, cashless settlement is also available so that post-repair delivery is quick without incurring bills at the workshop. It is therefore important to check the insurance company’s network for this facility. The bigger the network, the better the claimant’s options.• Communication access – The insurance company’s contact information must be easily accessible. If there is a problem the insured individual must know whom to get in touch with and the procedure to follow.• Cost – Last but not least, is the price or premium. Car insurance premium is based on “insured declared value” or IDV and the rate multiplier and depends on the car model, the age of the car, daily mileage and the terrain of the location. It is important to declare the right IDV and select a policy that offers the maximum IDV even if you have to incur a slightly higher premium.Besides the above, the following are the benefits to look for:• No claim bonus – if no claim has been filed during the insurance period, a no-claim discount is offered on risk cover against own damage at the time of policy renewal. For each consecutive claim-free year, the discount increases progressively. The point to note is that the no claim bonus eligibility holds good even in the event of a new vehicle purchase or existing insurance renewal before the due date from a different insurance provider.• Opting for deductible – Drivers with a good record can opt for “voluntary excess” or deductible to lower their premium payments, in addition to the compulsory excess. In the case of a compulsory excess, the insured is liable to pay a specific amount if a claim is filed.• Premium based on car type – If your car has extra security features such as anti-theft alarms the chances of theft is lower and insurance can come at a lower premium.• Timely insurance renewal – If car insurance is not renewed before the expiry date the renewal premium can result in loss of coverage especially if there is an accident and also mean no discount for the no-claim bonus.• Choice of Add-ons- Besides the basic car insurance coverage, insurance providers offer several optional add-ons. It is important to select the right ones and only pay for those. For example, if there is a medical expense cover or hospital cash cover, check to see if you have a medical insurance policy that already covers these.• To renew or not to renew – with the same insurance provider? When it is time to renew your car insurance, compare insurance providers to see what they are offering before making a decision. The car insurance industry is very competitive and for the same coverage, you can probably get a better price elsewhere.Some final precautions to bear in mind are:• Check that the insurance policy is genuine. Always buy your car insurance directly from the insurance company or from its authorized agent.• Always get a premium payment receipt.• When you receive your policy document, check the IDV, no claim bonus and deductible details to make sure it is what you opted for. Any discrepancies must be notified and rectified immediately.• Make sure only you sign the proposal form and always read before signing• Do not opt for monthly payments as this is more expensive than annual paymentsRemember that car insurance protects you and the occupants of your car on two counts: from accidental damage and from third party claims when you are responsible for the accident. Therefore, choose with care.