Spotlight: Laurence Girard @ Fruit Street

A spotlight is a short-form interview with a leader in RCM or health tech.

In this spotlight, you'll hear from Laurence Girard, Founder and CEO of Fruit Street Health. You'll learn what Fruit Street does and how Laurence thinks RCM will change in the next few years.

What does Fruit Street do?

Fruit Street delivers the CDC’s diabetes prevention program through live group video conferencing with registered dietitians. The program is designed to help the 1 in 3 Americans with prediabetes avoid developing Type 2 diabetes.

How did you end up working in health tech?

I was planning to go to medical school when I was 18 years old. I was volunteering in my local emergency room while simultaneously taking a nutrition epidemiology course with a Harvard School of Public Health professor. This led me to realize that many of the patients coming into the emergency room had preventable conditions related to their diet and lifestyle, such as Type 2 diabetes.

I also gained my interest in entrepreneurship by going to talks at the Harvard Innovation Lab on the Harvard Business School campus. I thought that maybe instead of going to medical school, I could have a big impact on lifestyle-related diseases and public health through technology and entrepreneurship. I started my company as a summer project at the Harvard Innovation Lab more than a decade ago and have been working on it ever since.

How does your role intersect with revenue cycle management (RCM)?

Fruit Street recently became a Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program Supplier. We use Stedi to run automated eligibility checks and submit claims.

What do you think RCM will look like two years from now?

I think RCM solutions – like those powered by Stedi – will directly and more deeply integrate with other digital health solutions. They'll use AI to check in advance if a service is covered by a health plan so there are fewer claim denials.