Making care easier for people navigating rare diseases

Living with a rare disease often means long diagnostic journeys, complex medications, fragmented care and daily uncertainty. For many patients, the healthcare system can feel hard to navigate and even harder to trust. Optum Frontier Therapies has supported more than 50,000 people living with rare disease, building strong, trusted relationships designed to drive better long-term outcomes.

Why it matters: Optum Frontier Therapies was created to directly address the gaps that too often define rare disease care:

• Delayed access 
• Disconnected services 
• Unclear next steps

By integrating specialty pharmacy, distribution and care coordination into one model, Frontier Therapies is making it easier for patients to access and stay on medication.

Optum Frontier Therapies’ commitment to delivering care adapted to real life is reflected in moments like a recent interaction between Brandy, a nurse, and an adult patient living with a rare gastrointestinal condition.

During a clinical reassessment, the patient shared a common but challenging issue: While the prescribed medication was helping, finding the right way to take it with meals remained difficult. Too little left symptoms unresolved; too much caused discomfort. Rather than quickly moving past the concern, Brandy took time to listen, ask questions and tailor the conversation to the patient’s experience, reinforcing how the clinician-patient relationship plays a critical role in sustained outcomes.

“By the end of the call, the patient didn’t just leave with a suggestion to try — they had clear, actionable next steps and more confidence in their care plan,” Brandy said. “We also scheduled a follow up call to check progress, adjust if needed and make sure the plan continued to work over time.”

Examples like this represent just one moment within thousands of highly individualized journeys, reflecting how Optum Frontier Therapies is built around people, not processes. No 2 rare conditions or patients are alike, and Frontier Therapies was designed from the start to meet that reality.

Optum Frontier Therapies is dedicated exclusively to rare conditions, bringing together specialty pharmacy, specialty distribution and commercial services into a single, coordinated care experience. This approach helps support patients whose needs don’t fit neatly into traditional health care pathways and whose care requires flexibility, personalization and continuity.

“Rare disease patients can spend years navigating misdiagnoses, delayed treatment and fragmented care. Once medication begins, the experience should be seamless, not another hurdle to overcome.

Optum Frontier Therapies was built to simplify access and reduce friction, no matter where a patient is in their rare disease journey. We meet patients where they are and walk alongside them, ensuring care adapts as their needs evolve. That is the gap we have closed.” — Jaclyn Latteri, vice president, Rare Franchise, Optum Frontier Therapies

This connected model helps reduce treatment delays and avoidable interruptions, giving patients a clearer, more reliable path to starting and staying on their medications.

With hubs in Flint, Michigan, and Las Vegas, Nevada, Frontier Therapies was designed for nationwide reach while maintaining a high-touch, personalized approach. These locations support consistent care delivery for patients across all 50 states.

Care ambassadors serve as a point of contact for patients and providers. This model streamlines communication, reduces delays and makes complex medications easier to manage for patients, caregivers and care teams alike.

This individualized, wraparound approach recognizes that living with a rare disease isn’t linear and support shouldn’t be either. By designing every element of the model around patient journeys rather than system constraints, Frontier Therapies helps ensure patients feel supported not just when treatment starts, but throughout the moments that matter most in long-term care.