Understanding Managed Care and Its Trends

The evolution of managed care spans over 100 years. The infrastructure of managed care is complex and it includes diverse participants and processes. Participants include wholesalers, manufacturers, hospitals, clinicians, pharmacy teams, the government and pharmacy benefit managers, among many others. Managed care applies clinical and scientific evidence, supports the appropriate use of therapeutics, enhances patient and population health outcomes, and optimizes the use of limited healthcare resources. Pharmacy teams are ideally positioned to contribute to a broad range of managed care solutions.