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Lara D. Compton

(she/her/hers)

Member

[email protected]

+.1.424.259.4019

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Lara is a trusted advisor to clients ranging from traditional health care providers to disrupter digital health platforms as they navigate the practical and regulatory challenges of health care innovation. Her unique depth of knowledge across HIPAA privacy and other regulatory issues governing the use of data, state and federal fraud and abuse laws, business planning and operational issues has led colleagues to describe Lara as the “Swiss Army knife” of health care problem-solving.

Working at the intersection of health care and technology, Lara counsels telemedicine and other digital health clients on business plan strategy and implementation, state-specific telemedicine regulation, corporate practice of medicine, the scope of practice, fee splitting, anti-kickback, reimbursement, and other health care regulatory issues. Leveraging her prior in-house experience, she advises health care providers on the incorporation of telehealth and other technology infrastructures, which saw a vast uptick as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lara advises health care providers, clinical trials companies, ancillary providers, technology start-ups, HMOs, insurance companies, and large technology companies on HIPAA and other health data privacy and security regulations, including developing and implementing HIPAA compliance programs. She has also led significant HIPAA breach investigations, advising clients on risk management and mitigation efforts.

Prior to joining Mintz, Lara was a partner at a boutique health care law firm, where she co-chaired the transactional/regulatory practice regulatory practice, guiding clients not only on risk avoidance but also on essential challenges of growth, including the transition to value-based care arrangements and the development of new health technology and digital health-related products and services. She also served as an in house attorney at two nonprofit health systems, Sutter Health and Community Medical Centers, where she advised extensively on Anti-Kickback, Stark Law, day-to-day operational risk and cost control management as well as creating, evaluating and implementing internal policies, compliance programs, and marketing and training initiatives.

Lara regularly speaks on challenges facing the health care industry, including HIPAA and other regulatory issues presented by the development and implementation of health care technologies. 

She maintains an active pro bono practice, has been recognized as a Pro Bono Champion by the American Health Lawyers Association, and is a member of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee.

Lara is passionate for health and wellness and serves as the attorney chair for Mintz’s Wellness Committee. She is a member of the LA Tri Club, trains as a triathlete, runs several triathlons a year, and competes in the 70.3-mile Half Ironman.

Experience

Telehealth, Digital Health, and Health Information Technology

  • Structured health technology business models to comply with health care laws and regulations, including strategic guidance on the provision of professional services across the United States and compliance with state corporate practice of medicine prohibitions.
  • Represented several telehealth management service organizations in responding to California Medical Board information requests and investigations.
  • Managed regulatory due diligence on for buyers and sellers in connection with a variety of telehealth and health technology transactions.
  • Negotiated and provided regulatory counsel for wide range of digital health and health information technology agreements.
  • Provided ongoing health care regulatory advice to a wide range of digital health and health information technology companies.

Hospitals, Health Systems, and Other Health Care Providers

  • Assisted health care providers in developing and implementing new technologies. For example, assisted in navigating the regulatory issues posed by the development of a patient screening health app co-developed by a physician and a hospital.
  • Regularly assisted a broad range of health care providers in monitoring and navigating California health care regulatory requirements and enforcement, including but not limited to corporate practice of medicine prohibitions and other provider licensing laws, Physician Ownership and Referral Act and other state fraud and abuse laws, state health information privacy and security laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, Genetic Information Privacy Act, Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, Patient Access to Health Records Act, Lanterman Petris Short Act, and state breach reporting laws.
  • Represented clients across the health care industry (health plans, publicly traded companies, nonprofit hospitals, private equity backed health care providers) in performing/responding to health care regulatory due diligence on a variety of health care providers and addressing regulatory issues and requirements that arose in the context of the transaction. Regularly assisted a wide range of clients in responding to breach investigations, health information privacy and security audits and requests for information. Represented a client in responding to a wide scale California County information privacy and security audit which involved a forensic system assessment and onsite inspection, twenty employee interviews, multiple sets of questionnaire responses, and the production of hundreds of documents.
  • Developed a wide range of health care operational tools, for example toolkits for managing business associate relationships and managing patients who are refusing discharge or are otherwise difficult to place in an appropriate level of care.
  • Regularly conducted a wide range of regulatory compliance audits and investigations (e.g. HIPAA, fraud, waste, and abuse) for a variety of health care providers and assisted with process improvement and risk mitigation strategies.

Life Sciences and Medical Devices

  • Assisted a variety of clients with licensing requirements related to device distribution, for example negotiated settlement of disciplinary action with the California Board of Pharmacy for a medical device wholesaler and developed a 50-state, post-acquisition regulatory filing plan for a large diagnostics company.
  • Evaluated medical device and biotechnology company marketing campaigns for compliance with the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and other fraud and abuse laws.
  • Evaluated FDA regulatory implications for a variety of cellular and tissue based products and analyzed proposed product marketing materials for FDA and FTC regulatory implications.

Health Plans

  • Regularly advised on health information privacy and security law compliance issues. For example, advised health plans regarding the collection, use, and sharing of data for product development and marketing initiatives.
  • Advised California health plans regarding issues related to medical practice, for example California requirements for prescribing birth control pills using telehealth and California health care provider licensing and supervision requirements relevant to the quality assurance program.
  • Advised health plans regarding health care regulatory considerations related to vertical integration efforts, including transactional regulatory due diligence, fraud and abuse compliance advise, and risk management.
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viewpoints

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Federal Trade Commission’s GoodRx Settlement: Not Just a $1.5 Million Penalty

March 8, 2023 | Blog | By Lara Compton, Pat Ouellette

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently kicked off enforcement of its Health Breach Notification Rule (Breach Rule) by taking aim at GoodRx’s use of tracking technologies (e.g. pixels) and the sharing of consumer health data for advertising purposes. According to Samuel Levine, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, the FTC “is serving notice that it will use all of its legal authority to protect American consumers' sensitive data from misuse and illegal exploitation." Bottom line, HIPAA applicability may no longer be as significant of a factor when it comes to the risk presented by collecting, using, disclosing, and maintaining identifiable health information (IHI).
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New York Proposes Regulatory Review and Approval of Material Health Care Entity Transactions

March 1, 2023 | Blog | By Jean D. Krebs, Pamela Polevoy, Lara Compton

On February 1, 2023, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced the Fiscal Year 2024 New York State Executive Budget (the Executive Budget). One component of the Executive Budget’s Health and Mental Hygiene Article VII Legislation is a proposal to require certain “health care entities” to obtain approval from the New York State Department of Health (DOH) prior to consummating a material transaction.
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Mintz Health Law: What We Are Grateful For

January 11, 2023 | Podcast | By Bridgette Keller

Bridgette Keller speaks with the Mintz Health Law team about what they are grateful for as they look back on a year of client service, mentorship, and working together as a team.
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As illustrated by a recent Office for Civil Rights (OCR) settlement with a dental practice, health care entities continue to struggle with how to respond to negative online reviews while maintaining compliance with the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Given the significant reputational harm that negative reviews on Yelp and other social media and public platforms (Platforms) can create, providers may be tempted to respond to such negative comments with patient specifics in an attempt to mitigate harm to their businesses.
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California Legislative Update Part II: Upcoming Changes for Health Facilities

December 20, 2022 | Blog | By Lara Compton, Xavier Hardy

Governor Gavin Newsom signed 997 bills into law in 2022, including a substantial number relating to health care. In Part II of our legislative update, this blog post summarizes many of the laws relevant to health facilities, a number of which will go into effect January 1, 2023.
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Is Your Website Collecting PHI Under OCR's New Tracking Technologies Bulletin?

December 7, 2022 | Blog | By Dianne Bourque, Lara Compton, Kathryn Edgerton, Cassandra Paolillo, Kate Stewart

Covered Entities and Business Associates should promptly and carefully review their use of online tracking technologies on their websites and mobile apps following a bulletin (Bulletin) published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) last week.  The Bulletin addresses multiple facets of compliance with HIPAA when using online third-party tracking technologies (Tracking Technologies).  In doing so, OCR significantly expands its interpretation of the definition of Protected Health Information (PHI) to include, in some instances, identifiable information gathered by Tracking Technologies where a user visits a website and does not interact with the entity in any other way. In its Bulletin, OCR interprets the act of an individual visiting a website as evidence of a relationship or anticipated future relationship between the visitor and the entity.
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As of the close of the 2021-22 legislative session, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law health care related legislation tackling issues from management of health care costs to reproductive rights. In Part I of our legislative update, we summarize many of the laws relevant to licensed health care professionals.
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The health omnibus trailer SB-184, which created the Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA), is set to usher in a significant change in California’s health care regulatory landscape. In this post, we provide a preliminary review of the material changes that are set to begin in 2024.
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A new California law (AB 1278) will require physicians and their employers to provide patients with several forms of notices about the Open Payments database, starting January 1, 2023. The law is intended to increase patients’ awareness of the Open Payments database so they can make informed decisions about drugs and devices prescribed by their physician. This blog post provides an overview of the Open Payments Program, what exactly California's AB 1278 entails, and the implications of the law come January 2023 and January 2024. 
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California Attorney General Probes Bias in Health Care Algorithms

September 12, 2022 | Blog | By Lara Compton, Jane Haviland

A spurt of letters from California Attorney General, Rob Bonta, to leaders of hospitals and other health care facilities sent on August 31, 2022 signaled the kickoff of a government probe into bias in health care algorithms that contribute to material health care decisions. This blog post highlights the California Office of the Attorney General’s initiative to address disparities in health care and what this probe may mean for the use algorithms and AI in health care. 
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Events & Speaking

Speaker
Jan
31
2023

New Technology: Considerations for Evaluation, Development, and Implementation?

Physicians and Hospitals Law Institute 2023

Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld®

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Speaker
May
25
2022

The Evolving Health Care Privacy Landscape

Women Business Leaders of the U.S. Health Care Industry Foundation (WBL) Event

Online Event

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Speaker
Apr
6
2022

Telehealth Risk Management

Mintz

Online Event

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Speaker
Oct
22
2021

Health Law Review 2021 Virtual Fall Symposium

Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law

Online Event

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Moderator
Oct
20
2021

Cultivating Well-Being and Success

Mintz

Shutters on the Beach, Santa Monica, CA

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Aug
18
2021

Health Care Leadership Panel & Awards

Los Angeles Business Journal

Virtual Event

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Speaker
Jun
30
2021

Provider Compliance: Information Blocking and Patient Access

California Society for Healthcare Attorneys

Webinar

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Recognition & Awards

  • Best Lawyers in America: Health Care Law (2023)
  • Los Angeles Business Journal Women's Leadership Awards Nominees (2022)
  • Named a Business of Law Visionary in the Los Angeles Times B2B Publishing's Business of Law: Trends, Updates, Visionaries magazine (2022)
  • Los Angeles Business Journal Leaders of Influence: Thriving in Their 40s (2022)
  • Recognized by the Los Angeles Business Journal as one of the Trusted Advisors of the Year for the Health Care Leadership and Panel Awards - Attorney Nominees (2021); Finalist (2022)
  • Los Angeles Business Journal: Leaders in Law - Firm Attorney Nominees (2021)
  • American Health Lawyers Association: Pro Bono Champion (2014)
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Involvement

  • Member, American Health Lawyers Association
  • Member, California Society for Healthcare Attorneys
  • Vice Chair, LACBA-LACMA Committee on Biomedical Ethics
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Lara D. Compton

(she/her/hers)

Member

Los Angeles