Optum Launches Specialty Platform Aimed at Better Care, Lower Costs

Mar 10
Mar 10, 2022

Optum, Inc. recently unveiled Optum Specialty Fusion, a specialty drug management solution that’s focused on streamlining care for people on those products and lowering medication costs. According to the company, which is part of UnitedHealth Group, the approach has the potential to deliver 17% total cost savings in health plans’ medical and pharmacy spend.

Providers are able to request prior authorization for specialty agents via a portal, which then compares treatment options, including their costs, across both the medical and the pharmacy benefit. According to the company, “informed by Optum data and insights, Specialty Fusion provides savings options such as preferred products, dosage management policies, best sites of care and additional cost-control levers such as available discounts and pharmacy networks.” The solution narrows down treatment options to the ones or one that “makes the most clinical and financial sense” and provides approval for that treatment in real time, regardless of the benefit the agent falls under. Optum maintains that this approach lessens “administrative hassle and results in an expected 50% faster access to therapy for patients, while lowering costs.” Specialty Fusion is available for large health plans.
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Angela Maas

Angela has an extensive background of editing, reporting and writing for trade and consumer publications. She has written Radar on Specialty Pharmacy since she joined AIS Health in 2005 and has broad knowledge of the various issues at play within the space. She also has written for Spotlight on Market Access since its 2017 launch. Before joining AIS Health, she was managing editor at Employee Benefit News and Employee Benefit News Canada and managing editor at Hem Aware (a hemophilia publication), Lupus Living and Momentum (a multiple sclerosis publication). She has a B.A. in English and an M.A. in British literature from Arizona State University.