Coporate: Katherine Frierdich

General Counsel, Curative

St. Louis

For an attorney like Katherine Frierdich who does not like boring days, an effective prescription is working in the healthcare industry. 

It’s “extremely dynamic, ever changing and highly regulated,” said Frierdich, who spent three years as general counsel at Centene, a health insurance company, and has been at Curative, another health insurer, for three years. “Health care is such a huge industry, and it’s challenging.”

Friedrich is a third-generation attorney whose grandfather and father had a law firm in her small hometown, Sparta, Ill.

“It was just watching my dad being so helpful to people,” Frierdich said of why she went into law.

After graduating from Saint Louis University School of Law, Frierdich spent 17 years at Bryan Cave before entering the healthcare space. 

“It certainly was a steep learning curve,” she said. “There are a number of different segments of the industry, many overseen by differing regulatory authorities. The health care coverage segment itself is broken down into several different offerings, each governed by differing laws and regulations.”

At Centene, Frierdich acted as general counsel for seven Medicaid, Medicare and Affordable Care Act health plan markets, she said. Frierdich worked with federal and state regulators, who ranged from the most liberal to the most conservative in terms of risk tolerance, she said.

“One of the challenging things is to learn how to interact with regulators, to build a positive relationship,” Frierdich said. 

That requires transparency.

“The last thing a regulator wants is to feel like you’re not telling them everything,” Frierdich said.

At Curative, Frierdich helped the company transform from a Covid-19 testing company to an insurer.  That required Frierdich to rebuild a legal department. And just like when she entered the health care space, her legal team too had to quickly learn the intricacies of the industry.

“I’m not a micro-manager, so I let them be the professionals that they are. I’m always here with an open door to answer any questions or talk anything through,” she said. “I would say they are all experts now.”