affect our business. We also may be impacted by laws, industry standards and other requirements that are not specific to the healthcare industry, such as consumer protection laws and payment card industry standards. These requirements may impact our operations and, if not followed, could result in fines, penalties and other liabilities and adverse publicity and injury to our reputation.
We are subject to anti-corruption, anti-bribery, anti-money laundering, and similar laws, and non-compliance with such laws can subject us to criminal or civil liability and harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
While we operate only in the United States, we remain subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, U.S. domestic bribery laws, and other anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws in the countries in which we conduct activities. Anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws have been enforced aggressively in recent years and are interpreted broadly to generally prohibit companies, their employees and their third-party intermediaries from authorizing, offering, or providing, directly or indirectly, improper payments or benefits to recipients in the public or private sector. If we expand our business and sales outside the United States and to the public sector, we may engage with business partners and third-party intermediaries to market our services and to obtain for us the necessary permits, licenses, and other regulatory approvals. In addition, we or our third-party intermediaries may have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or state-owned or affiliated entities. We can be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of these third-party intermediaries, our employees, representatives, contractors, partners and agents, even if we do not explicitly authorize such activities.
Detecting, investigating, and resolving actual or alleged violations of anti-corruption laws can require a significant diversion of time, resources, and attention from senior management. In addition, noncompliance with anti-corruption, anti-bribery, or anti-money laundering laws could subject us to whistleblower complaints, investigations, prosecution, enforcement actions, sanctions, settlements, fines, damages, other civil or criminal penalties or injunctions, suspension or debarment from contracting with certain persons, reputational harm, adverse media coverage, and other collateral consequences. If any subpoenas or investigations are launched, or governmental or other sanctions are imposed, or if we do not prevail in any possible civil or criminal proceeding, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be harmed. In addition, responding to any action will likely result in a materially significant diversion of management’s attention and resources and significant defense costs and other professional fees, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Any potential sales to government entities are subject to a number of challenges and risks.
We may sell our services or solutions to U.S. federal, state, and local government, and agency, clients. Sales to such entities are subject to a number of challenges and risks. Selling to such entities can be highly competitive, expensive, and time-consuming, often requiring significant upfront time and expense without any assurance that these efforts will generate a sale. Government contracting requirements may change and in doing so restrict our ability to sell into the government sector until we have attained the revised certification. Government demand and payment for our offerings is dependent on many factors outside our control, including general economic conditions, public sector budgetary constraints and funding authorizations, and general political priorities, with funding reductions or delays adversely affecting public sector demand for our offerings.
Further, governmental and highly regulated entities may demand contract terms that differ from our standard arrangements. Such entities may have statutory, contractual, or other legal rights to terminate contracts with us or our partners due to a default or for other reasons. Any such termination may adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations.
Any failure to protect our intellectual property rights could impair our ability to protect our proprietary technology and our brand.
Our success depends in part on our ability to protect our brand and proprietary trade secret and confidential information, including unpatented know-how, technology and other proprietary information, maintaining, defending and enforcing our intellectual property rights. We rely on our agreements with our clients, and non-disclosure and