Jurisdiction issues may also affect the insurance and the coverage provided by the agency as insurance coverage is also restricted to certain regions and not outside those jurisdictions.
Identity Theft: Another issue or the problem is that of identity theft, which is considered to be the fastest growing crime in America as millions of victims have been reported over a period of last couple of years. Giving out information on website whether it is email or other security or personal details requires care & caution on part of both consumers as well as WebMD management.
Jargons: The information available for the consumers at times can be in a technical language. Jargons may create confusion among the consumers and may misguide them. Most information is available in easy to understand language but the provision of glossary of terms may help the consumers in understanding the true meaning of the content available at WebMD.
Parental Monitoring: The information available on WebMD is of sensitive nature. Many a times the issues are related to sexual health as well defined explicitly. Children may have access to such information without much trouble. Words of caution should be mentioned at the website to caution parents of certain content that may not be appropriate for children.
B2B Issues: WebMD is the unique combination of B2C and B2B. The web site offers B2B services like workflow; moving business documents among doctors, HMOs, and insurance firms. Graphical banner advertisements, pop-ups and text based ads are online ads that are placed on the website, linking back to a website is another way of using emarketing and offering B2B options the ads are designed to encourage users to click through to a site to learn more and ultimately, to buy. Affiliate programs, also known as referral programs or partnership programs work by paying a commission for each transaction a website produces for a third party. These sites may offer a commission payment based on a percentage of the revenue generated...
All these affiliations should be thoroughly checked for standards as associations with dubious companies may hurt the repute of the WebMD.
Counterfeiting: Previously, we had counterfeit product selling in the open markets. Fake versions of world-renowned brands were available in the market at a fraction of the original price. Now Internet has become the center of activities of such fake and counterfeit products. Counterfeiting and trademark infringements on Internet have also covered the pharmaceuticals. Considering the gravity of the problem Anti-Counterfeiting Act was passed in United States in the year 1996. WebMD has to be careful when dealing with other businesses specially related to pharmaceuticals.
Technical Issues: There are digital certificates used for web servers that provide authentication, privacy and date integrity by means of encryption. A system is required where payments can be accepted, processed, secured and managed online without any delays. There are many payment management systems available that deal with these issues. "It's time to unify the management of networks, applications (shopping carts) and systems, as well as the computers upon which Web servers, application servers and databases run. The stakes are significant: Whichever dot-coin can deploy the tools and the people who can take a multidisciplinary approach to management has the best chance of winning in the competitive ecommerce world" (Phillips, 2000).
References
Phillips, B. (March 2000). Ecommerce Management -- a Matter of Breadth and Depth. Business Communications Review. 30(3): 14.
Leaffer, T. (2006). The Digital Health-Care Revolution: Empowering Health Consumers; Anywhere and Anytime Access to a World of Medical Information Is Helping Consumers to Take Better Charge of Their Health. The Futurist. 40(3): 53+.
Promoting Patient Safety: An Ethical Basis for Policy Deliberation. The Hastings Center Report. 33(5): 1+.
