Yesterday, the White House approved Fruit Street's commitment to invest up to $10 million to enroll Medicaid beneficiaries into Fruit Street's Diabetes Prevention Program over the next five years. Fruit Street made this commitment in response to the White House's Challenge to End Hunger & Build Healthy Communities.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Yesterday, the White House approved Fruit Street's commitment to invest up to $10 million to enroll Medicaid beneficiaries into Fruit Street's Diabetes Prevention Program over the next five years. Fruit Street made this commitment in response to the White House's Challenge to End Hunger & Build Healthy Communities.
The Fruit Street diabetes prevention program is delivered via telehealth and live group video conferencing with registered dietitians. The National Diabetes Prevention Program has been proven to help individuals with prediabetes substantially reduce their risk for developing Type 2 diabetes by making diet and lifestyle changes.
In March 2023, the Biden-Harris Administration announced the White House Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities. The Challenge was a nationwide call-to-action to stakeholders across all of society to make bold commitments to advance President Biden's goal to end hunger and reduce diet-related diseases by 2030—all while reducing disparities.
The Challenge built on the historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health hosted by President Biden in September 2022 where the President released a National Strategy, and announced over $8 billion of external commitments to achieve his bold goal. Fruit Street's Chief Executive Officer, Laurence Girard, attended the historic conference in 2022 where he was inspired by elected officials such as Senator Cory Booker who spoke passionately about addressing diet-related disease.
"We were honored to attend the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health in 2022. The conference inspired our company to think about more ways that we could scale the delivery of our diabetes prevention program to underserved populations. Ultimately, Fruit Street registered as an Illinois Medicaid provider and continued Medicaid pilots with the Georgia and Rhode Island Department of Health. Over the next 5 years, we plan to register as a Medicaid provider in additional states and enroll Medicaid beneficiaries into our diabetes prevention program that is delivered via telehealth. Six states currently reimburse for diabetes prevention programs via telehealth, providing coverage for approximately 16 million Medicaid beneficiaries for the diabetes prevention program. We are excited to serve the Medicaid population and to make the diabetes prevention program accessible to anyone, regardless of their physical location, through the innovation of telehealth. Today 96 million Americans have prediabetes and millions of them are Medicaid beneficiaries that need improved access to the National Diabetes Prevention Program. We are confident that Fruit Street can increase access to the diabetes prevention program by using telehealth to reach Medicaid beneficiaries."
About Fruit Street
Fruit Street is a CDC-recognized and approved diabetes prevention program that is delivered via telehealth and live group video conferencing with registered dietitians. The National Diabetes Prevention Program is an evidenced-based healthcare intervention that has been proven to help individuals with prediabetes reduce their risk for developing Type 2 diabetes by 58%. More than 1 in 3 Americans have prediabetes and Fruit Street's program is designed to help prevent them from developing Type 2 diabetes. Fruit Street is a Public Benefit Corporation whose mission is to deliver the diabetes prevention program via telehealth. Fruit Street is also an Illinois Medicaid provider.
About the White House Challenge to End Hunger & Build Healthy Communities
The Challenge built on the historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health hosted by President Biden in September 2022 where the President released a National Strategy, and announced over $8 billion of external commitments to achieve his bold goal.
Media Contact
Laurence Girard, Fruit Street Health, 1 (347) 202-1101, [email protected], http://www.fruitstreetclinic.com
SOURCE Fruit Street Health
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