will achieve and maintain compliance with federal and state laws and regulations. Our failure to achieve and maintain regulatory compliance at our medical gas facilities could result in enforcement action, including untitled letters, warning letters, fines, product recalls or seizures, temporary or permanent injunctions, or suspensions in operations at one or more locations, as well as civil or criminal penalties, all of which could materially harm our business, results of operations, financial conditions and prospects.
Our operations are subject to various environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, including related to storage, transportation and provision of medical gas products and compressed and liquid oxygen, which carries an inherent risk of rupture, leaks, fires or other accidents, and could potentially result in fines or penalties or cause substantial loss and liability that could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial conditions and prospects.
Our operations involve the use of hazardous and flammable materials, and we are subject to a variety of federal, state and local environmental laws and regulations relating to the storage, transportation and provision of medical gas products and compressed and liquid oxygen. There is an inherent risk of ruptures, leaks, fires or other accidents. These risks could result in substantial losses due to personal injury or loss of life, severe damage to and destruction of property and equipment and pollution or other environmental damage and may result in curtailment or suspension of our related operations. Environmental laws and regulations impose liability for the remediation of releases of hazardous substances into the environment and for personal injuries resulting from exposure to hazardous substances, and they can give rise to substantial remediation costs and to third-party claims. Our products may also contain hazardous substances, and they are subject to laws and regulations relating to labeling requirements and to their sale, collection, recycling, treatment, storage and disposal. Corrective action plans, fines or other sanctions may be levied by government regulators who oversee the storage, transportation and provision of hazardous materials and any liability could exceed our resources. Liability under environmental laws and regulations can be joint and several and without regard to fault or negligence, and they tend to become more stringent over time, imposing greater compliance costs and increased risks and penalties associated with violations. We cannot assure you that violations of these laws and regulations, or releases of or exposure to hazardous substances, will not occur in the future and have not occurred in the past, including as a result of human error, accidents, equipment failure or other causes. If a significant accident or event occurs, it could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial conditions and prospects. Although we maintain general liability insurance as well as workers’ compensation insurance to cover us for costs and expenses we may incur due to injuries to our employees or third-party vendors resulting from the use of hazardous materials, this insurance may not provide adequate coverage against potential liabilities. We do not maintain insurance for environmental liability or tort claims that may be asserted against us in connection with our storage or disposal of hazardous materials.
Failure of a key information technology system, process or site could have an adverse effect on our business.
We rely extensively on information technology (“IT”) systems to conduct our business, particularly with respect to our online business. These systems affect, among other things, invoice patients and Payors, to manage clinical and financial data, to communicate with our patients, Payors, vendors and other third parties, to summarize and analyze our operating results and other processes necessary to manage our business. Our systems may be subject to computer viruses, ransomware or other malware, attacks by computer hackers, failures during the process of upgrading or replacing software, databases or components thereof and if our systems are damaged or cease to function properly due to these, or any number of causes, ranging from catastrophic events and power outages to security breaches, and our business continuity plans do not effectively compensate on a timely basis, we may experience interruptions in our operations, including corruption of our data or release of our confidential information, which could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial conditions and prospects.
A cyber-attack, a security breach or the improper disclosure of protected health information (“PHI”) could cause a loss of confidential data, give rise to remediation and other expenses, expose us to liability under HIPAA and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (“HITECH”), consumer protection, common law or other legal theories, subject us to litigation and federal and state governmental inquiries, damage our reputation and otherwise be disruptive to our business.
We rely extensively on our IT systems to bill patients and Payors, to manage clinical and financial data, to communicate with our consumers, Payors, vendors and other third parties, and to summarize and