Photograph of Maya Uppaluru

Government Experience

  • Federal Communications Commission—Attorney Advisor, Healthcare Connect Fund (2012-2013)
  • Department of Health & Human Services—Policy Analyst for Health Innovation (2013-2016)
  • The White House—Policy Advisor for Health Data, Office of CTO (2015-2016); Digital Service Expert, USDS (2016-2017)

Education

  • University of California, Irvine, B.A. political science (2007)
  • University of Maryland School of Law, J.D. (2011) cum laude

Admissions

  • California
  • District of Columbia

Maya Uppaluru

Counsel
Washington, D.C.
muppaluru@crowell.com
Phone: +1 202.624.2518
1001 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20004-2595

Maya Uppaluru is a counsel in Crowell & Moring’s Washington, D.C. office with the Digital Health Practice and Health Care Group and provides strategic, legal, and regulatory advice to a range of organizations at the forefront of health innovation, including providers, plans, large tech companies, startups, and venture capital.

Maya joined the White House in 2015, in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, launching President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative and serving as a policy advisor to the U.S. Chief Technology Officer, where she helped to shape national policies around health data interoperability and led public-private collaborations to facilitate better access to health data for medical research.

Maya has a track record of helping technologists successfully navigate complex regulations to achieve their design and product goals. Most recently, she was on the healthcare team at the United States Digital Service, which aims to improve the way government delivers services to the American people through better technology and user-centered design. Maya worked directly with engineers, data scientists, designers, and product managers on the launch of the All of Us Research Program at the National Institutes of Health. She also worked with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to improve data sharing with physicians participating in the Quality Payment Program, and transition Medicare from fee for service to value-based care under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act. 

Previously, Maya served as a policy advisor at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, where she drafted regulations pertaining to patient access to health data and application programming interfaces and created the first program to link health IT policymakers directly with digital health startups and the venture capital community. Maya also served as an attorney advisor for the Healthcare Connect Fund at the Federal Communications Commission, working to expand access to broadband for rural health care providers to gain access to technology, including telemedicine and electronic health records.

Representative Matters

  • Counseled multiple digital health companies and a large health system on Medicare enrollment pathways and compliance requirements, including provider and Durable Medical Equipment (DME) regulatory issues, accreditation and quality standards.
  • Advised multiple companies on HIPAA Privacy Rule and Security Rule compliance, including drafting internal HIPAA policies and procedures, drafting compliance training materials and conducting training for staff.
  • Advised an international, household-name consumer technology company on health care fraud and abuse compliance, analyzing the business team’s various strategies for deploying its technology with health plans and medical device companies and providing guidance on Stark, Anti-Kickback, and Beneficiary Inducement Civil Monetary Penalty exceptions and safe harbors to enable the partnership to launch. 
  • Provided strategic regulatory counseling regarding Medicare Fee-for-Service reimbursement for multiple digital health companies ranging from emerging startups to international consumer technology brands, focusing on remote patient monitoring and chronic care management codes; developed stakeholder engagement and advocacy plan for shaping code definitions in Medicare regulations; drafted and advised clients on responding to Medicare proposed rules and interpreted final rule policy to assist with clients’ commercialization strategies.
  • Regulatory counseling and compliance guidance for a startup building a digital platform for clinical trials, including FDA regulatory interpretation, HIPAA and Common Rule compliance, CMS fraud and abuse prohibitions and exceptions.
  • Drafted multiple public comments in response to federal proposed rules or requests for stakeholder comment on Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute reform on behalf of an international medical device manufacturer, focusing on creating reasonable and appropriate fraud and abuse regulatory exceptions and safe harbors for value-based care financial arrangements and care coordination.
  • Developed data privacy and usage governance policy and framework for a European/U.S. pharmaceutical company addressing issues including return of research data to participants, consent, use of machine learning and artificial intelligence analytics, security protections and breach notification, application programming interface policies and third party data sharing. 
  • Provided ongoing strategic policy and regulatory counseling for an international health plan focusing on regulation of non-HIPAA covered entities and U.S. and international privacy legislation. Managed federal engagement strategy across the White House, CMS, and ONC; drafted a detailed data governance framework touching on consent, data usage, consumer rights, and third party data sharing to influence the direction of agency policy. 
  • Provided policy consulting and drafted a proposal for a new Medicaid demonstration project for multi-state health system focused on incentivizing and supporting the use of pediatric telehealth and remote patient monitoring across state lines, addressing regulatory challenges including provider licensing, credentialing, reimbursement and billing. Led multiple stakeholder convenings to discuss and receive input on proposal, and managed engagement with CMS Innovation Center to formally propose the project to agency leadership.
  • Advised health care specialty organization on creation of a clinical data registry, including HIPAA compliance for collection and use of data for population health management and quality measurement/reporting, guidance on data sharing with researchers, de-identification of data, and drafted and negotiated vendor agreements to develop new products and services based on registry data and analysis.

Affiliations

Admitted to practice: California, District of Columbia


Speeches & Presentations

  • "Digital Transformation: AI in Health Care," LCRA Conference (May 15-16, 2019). Panelists: Jodi G. Daniel and Maya Uppaluru.
  • "Transparency of Notice and Choice," IPLJ Symposium, New York, NY (September 21, 2018). Panelist: Maya Uppaluru.
  • "Healthcare Reimbursement: Commercialization Strategies and Approaches," 2018 Inova Discovery Series, Early Stage Investing in Health Technology (June 21, 2018). Presenters: Troy A. Barsky, Roma Sharma, and Maya Uppaluru.

Publications


Client Alerts & Newsletters


Media Mentions


Firm News & Announcements

Jan.02.2020 Crowell & Moring Elects Eight New Partners and Promotes Seven to Senior Counsel and 26 to Counsel Positions