Biography
Wakaba Tessier focuses her practice on health care law. She is highly skilled at navigating the complex health care regulatory landscape particularly in the area of compliance at both the state and federal levels across a variety of health care issues, privacy and data concerns, third-party payor audits and inquiries, and day-to-day operational challenges.
She advises clients ranging from individual physicians, physician groups, hospital systems and other ancillary health care providers, such as specialty pharmacies, clinical laboratories, behavioral health care providers and educational institutions. Wakaba is well-versed in pharmacy operations, clinical research agreements, physician compensation arrangements, telemedicine, federal and state reimbursement issues, and medical staff privileging and credentialing. She is knowledgeable about a wide range of issues facing health care clients and regularly advises on matters related to the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, Stark Law and the False Claims Act, and related implications for emerging companies in health care mergers and acquisitions and financing transactions.
Wakaba also has extensive experience in privacy law and counsels clients in sensitive and highly regulated issues, including health information confidentiality, data breaches, mental health records, multistate recordkeeping and data transfer, and big data strategies for the creation and implementation of data warehouses.
Background
Prior to joining Armstrong Teasdale, Wakaba was executive vice president and general counsel at a life sciences company based in Syracuse, New York. She previously served as a health care associate and partner at several large multinational firms.
Before earning her master’s and law degrees, Wakaba was a research associate at a boutique health care consulting company in the Boston area.
Education
- Washington University School of Law (J.D., 2009)
- Washington University Law Review (Managing Editor)
- Valparaiso University (M.S., 2008)
- International Commerce and Policy
- Wellesley College (B.A., 2002)
- Psychology
- Japanese Studies
Admissions
Professional Activities
- Law360 Health Editorial Advisory Board (2020-2021, 2023)
Accolades
- On Being a Lawyer of Color, Midwest Region Hot List (2014)
- Missouri/Kansas Super Lawyers®, Rising Star (2018-19)
- Ingram’s 40 Under Forty (2018)
Languages
- Japanese