Why A Sluggish Economy is the Perfect Time to Audit and Review Key Customer Contracts

It has become increasingly clear over the past few months that businesses are in a cost-cutting mode, as the economy has become more and more sluggish.  While your  digital health company is likely focusing on its own cost-cutting strategy, have you stopped to consider whether your most significant customers might be doing the same?   Is…

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The Risks of Closing a Deal by Signing the Customer Contract

Perhaps one of the very worst decisions I see digital health companies make is negotiating to close a deal by agreeing to sign the customer’s contract. While it can potentially save time and upfront legal fees to agree to sign the customer’s proposed contract and perhaps get cash in the door faster, the legal fallout…

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Will Your Digital Health Company’s Contracts be Vulnerable to a Recession?

If your digital health company is like most companies right now, your company is nervous about the possibility of an impending recession.  Of course, the real challenge is how to handle those nerves, and what steps your digital health company should take to better protect itself in the current environment.  The conventional wisdom is to…

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Arbitration vs. Litigation in Digital Health Contracts: Which Option is “Better”?

I was recently asked by a client whether arbitration or litigation was “better.”  The issue had been raised by an attorney on the other side of the contract, who had not only tried to persuade my client to revise the specific clause in that case, but had also provided my client the unsolicited advice that…

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Drafting Problems with Fee Terms in Digital Health Contracts

When a client sends me a digital health software agreement to review or update, I always make a priority of reviewing any terms in the contract involving fees and then carefully reviewing the website and any marketing materials or fee schedules to confirm that the fee terms in the contract clearly match the fees listed…

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Why Digital Health Companies Should Plan for Customer Negotiations over Insurance Requirements

If your digital health company is like most, you postpone the procurement of insurance policies until you absolutely have to obtain them, expecting to be able to obtain whatever you need on demand.  You likely do not consider that not having certain insurance in place may delay the signing of your next big customer contract.…

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Key Mistakes Companies Make in Negotiating Digital Health Software Contracts

What are the key mistakes companies make when negotiating digital health software contracts? First and foremost, the most common mistake I run into negotiations is that companies often end up negotiating with the wrong contract as the starting point.  For example, the parties may negotiate from a software license template when they need a SaaS…

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Is Your Digital Health Agreement Silent on Implementation?

If your digital health company is like most companies these days, you likely set up a software interface and train your customers on how to use the product at the very beginning of the relationship.  You probably even charge some sort of fee for these initial services that you provide.  And the set-up process may…

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How to Recognize a Poorly Written Digital Health Contract

In my experience, the first sign of a poorly drafted digital health contract is that contract completely confuses the software licensing and SaaS technology models, so that it’s extremely unclear as to what kind of product that the software provider is actually selling. If the product is a software license, the contract should contain a…

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Is your Digital Health Software Company Signing Customers to Contracts Based on the Appropriate Contract Model?

Is your digital health software company signing customers to contracts that are based on the appropriate technology contracting model? In digital health contracts (as in software contracts generally), perhaps the single most common issue that gets confused is the difference between a software license and a software-as-a-service agreement.  But the concepts are very different.  In…

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When does a Digital Health Company need a Service Level Agreement?

I often find that many digital health companies are unfamiliar with the concept of a service level agreement and have no idea when they might need one. A “service level agreement” or “SLA” is a technical agreement that defines that parties’ expectations of the level of service that will be provided in a particular service…

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