Health Tech: Robert J Rossiter On How Fountain Health Insurance’s Technology Can Make An Important Impact On Our Overall Wellness
Innovation can be Messy — We are constantly reinforcing to our employees to be bold in their decisions and not to be afraid to fail. The path to success is paved with failure.
In recent years, Big Tech has gotten a bad rep. But of course many tech companies are doing important work making monumental positive changes to society, health, and the environment. To highlight these, we started a new interview series about “Technology Making An Important Positive Social Impact”. We are interviewing leaders of tech companies who are creating or have created a tech product that is helping to make a positive change in people’s lives or the environment. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Robert Rossiter, CEO of Fountain Health Insurance.
Robert J. Rossiter is a health insurance leader, devoted to transforming the current sick-based model into a preventative, health-focused solution by providing access to medical breakthroughs faster than ever before. Inspired by personal stories of cancer diagnoses that came too late in the traditional system, Rossiter committed himself to building a health insurance company that was driven by upfront wellness coverage designed to identify and prevent catastrophic diseases in their earliest phases. In 2021, Rossiter became the founding CEO of Fountain Health Insurance with a mission to save lives by putting health in health insurance.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
When I started my career, I went to work for my father. He ran a successful insurance agency for many years. Prior to my first day, I fully expected that he would assign me some accounts to work on and give me a salary, a company car, and an expense allowance. After all, this was what was done for his other employees — wouldn’t his son get the same treatment? On day one, he sat me down and told me that I would not be earning a salary, nor would I get any accounts given to me. If I was going to make it, I was going to start from nothing and work my way up. This work ethic has stayed with me to this day.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Carpe Diem — Seize the Day!” Growing up my father would say this all the time, but it didn’t really resonate with me until 2017. While on vacation, my nephew got caught in a rip current. I went to save him and the both of us got swept out to sea. It was a close call and I had to spend a week in the hospital, but we both made it out alive. Since then, those words have new impact and meaning for me. Take no day for granted; each one is a gift.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
For whatever level of success I achieve, that success can be directly pointed to one character trait: I never gave up.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about the tech tools that you are helping to create that can make a positive impact on our wellness. To begin, which particular problems are you aiming to solve?
Our current healthcare system is a reactive, sick care model. You break, they will fix you. Health insurance follows suit; it typically provides coverage once you are sick. We are trying to flip this model by covering new medical innovations that can detect disease earlier than ever before. By catching an illness early, we can either treat it or prevent it from ever becoming a catastrophic event. This is hugely impactful to our members and is financially impactful by lowering the cost of care and premiums for health insurance coverage.
How do you think your technology can address this?
Fountain Health provides access to technology. The current health insurance platform takes an average of five to seven years to approve new technology. We approve life-saving technology as it comes to market so more people can benefit from it.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
Several years ago, my mother was diagnosed with throat cancer. We were able to get her into one of the top cancer hospitals in the U.S. This experience changed the way I saw health care: as she went through her treatments, I could see how it was not only killing the cancer, but at the same time, taking a huge piece of her vitality. She survived the treatment and for that we are grateful, but she was never the same person. They treated her to survive, not to thrive. From that point, I searched for a better way forward. In December of 2020, I found that better way when I met the team at Fountain Life.
How do you think this might change the world?
Fountain Health Insurance will give the latest preventative wellness treatments at no cost to our members. This will give them hyper-accurate data on their health, and allow us to identify and either treat or prevent catastrophic diseases. In addition, it will give anyone the ability to have a true baseline of their health so they can make decisions that will lead to improved health and longevity.
Here is the main question for our discussion. Based on your experience and success, can you please share “Five things you need to know to successfully create technology that can make a positive social impact”? (Please share a story or an example, for each.)
- Anything is Possible — In my work at Fountain Health, I am blessed to be around several amazing individuals. One of our founders is Peter Diamandis, the author of many books including Life Force and The Future is Faster Than You Think. He is truly one of the great exponential thinkers of our generation. Peter has an expression: the day before something is a breakthrough, it’s a crazy idea.
- Innovation can be Messy — We are constantly reinforcing to our employees to be bold in their decisions and not to be afraid to fail. The path to success is paved with failure.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
Start with doing good for one person every day. If everyone focused on bringing a blessing to just one person each day, imagine the world we could live in.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)
George Brennan. When I suffered a catastrophic failure in my career and had to start over, George reached out and offered me office space, phones, advice and anything else I needed to get back on my feet. Due to my schedule, I am long overdue on getting together with him for breakfast and catching up. I always want him to know how I cherish our friendship and will always be eternally grateful for his help when I needed it most.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
http://www.fountainhealth.com/ or connect with me on LinkedIn.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
