Making care easier for people navigating rare conditions

Living with a rare disease often means long diagnostic journeys, complex medications, fragmented care and daily uncertainty. For many patients, the health care 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 conditions, building strong, trusted relationships designed to drive better, long‑term outcomes.

Why it matters: Frontier Therapies was created to directly address the gaps that too often define rare disease care — delayed access, disconnected services and 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.

Care that adapts to real life

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 moving quickly 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 Frontier Therapies is built around people, not processes. No two rare conditions or patients are alike and Frontier Therapies was designed from the start to meet that reality.

Care designed for rare disease

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 to support patients whose needs don’t fit neatly into traditional health care pathways and whose care requires flexibility, personalization and continuity.

The impact: 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 intentionally 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.

The bottom line: 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.