In addition to the substantial clinical challenges that are associated with managing rare diseases such as hemophilia and SLE, optimally treating those patients are often tied to heavy economic burden that may often exceed $100,000 per year per patient. And while the total healthcare budget impact is minimal, managed care authorities are tasked with designing protocols that ensure the appropriate use of medications, deriving the highest value from the high cost therapies. While guidelines provide useful reference points in approaching rare conditions, they do not necessarily define the process of identifying the right patient and channeling them towards the right clinical care strategy, while minimizing waste and managing disparities in expectations.
Managed Care Reflections: A Q&A With A. Mark Fendrick, MD, and Michael E. Chernew, PhD
December 2nd 2025To mark the 30th anniversary of The American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC), each issue in 2025 includes a special feature: reflections from a thought leader on what has changed—and what has not—over the past 3 decades and what’s next for managed care. The December issue features a conversation with AJMC Co–Editors in Chief A. Mark Fendrick, MD, director of the Center for Value-Based Insurance Design and a professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor; and Michael E. Chernew, PhD, the Leonard D. Schaeffer Professor of Health Care Policy and the director of the Healthcare Markets and Regulation Lab at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.
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