The Founder’s Why
Where It All Started: A Passion for People, Data and Better Care
Tina Rydland, Founder RxClarity
In the early 1990s, I began my career at one of the first pharmacy benefit managers, working with medical directors and pharmaceutical companies to improve outcomes for employers and their members. Even then, I saw the power of bringing data, clinical expertise and compassion together to improve care at scale.
That experience led me to pharmacy school at the University of Minnesota, where I focused on pharmaceutical care and healthcare economics. I became particularly interested in the risks facing patients taking multiple medications—and the clinical and financial consequences when care isn’t well coordinated.
I saw early on that bringing pharmacists closer to patients and physicians could prevent harm, improve outcomes and reduce unnecessary costs. That belief became the foundation for everything that followed.
Innovation from Within
Building What Others Said Wasn’t Possible
After pharmacy school, I made it my mission to bring true pharmaceutical care into the PBM industry—connecting pharmacists directly with patients and physicians to improve outcomes and reduce unnecessary costs. One of my proudest achievements was co-developing a medication management program for federal employees and their families. Now known as Patient-Centered Care (PCare), it still serves more than 30,000 people each year. It was early proof of something I still believe today: when care teams are supported instead of buried in administrative friction, both care and cost improve.
Expanding Impact Through Data & Integrity
Turning Information Into Action
At the same time, I was leading high-cost claim reviews, financial forecasting, utilization analytics, and fraud, waste and abuse efforts. One project I’m especially proud of addressed opioid misuse through proactive policies, data analysis, physician-member communication and early intervention. We identified concerning patterns, addressed bad actors and protected members with dignity and compassion—work that helped establish my expertise in pharmacy analytics and fraud, waste and abuse.
Learning the Other Side
What Really Happens Inside the Big Carriers
Eventually, I left the PBM world and joined UnitedHealth Group’s care management division to understand the system from the inside. I helped consolidate struggling disease-management programs into scalable tools and worked with specialty pharmacy teams on integrated member-engagement strategies. The experience gave me valuable insight into how large carriers approach care management and pharmacy—and introduced me to smart people and ideas that continue to influence my work today. But it also reinforced something I had learned through PCare: programs alone don’t create value. Trust, clinical judgment and meaningful engagement at the point of care do.
Taking the Leap
Becoming a Trusted Consultant Across the Supply Chain
As a consultant, I began to see the full fragmentation of healthcare. Employers were funding layers of vendors, networks and administrators, while the providers delivering care were often disconnected from the financial decisions surrounding it. I focused on helping employers move closer to the source of value—connecting them with high-value providers and care teams, improving access to needed therapies, and finding better ways to manage increasingly complex and high-cost care. That experience reinforced another important lesson: better outcomes and better economics happen when the people paying for care and the people delivering it have greater visibility, alignment and accountability.
Putting It All Together
Designing Smarter Care for Real People
That’s when I founded RxClarity. I didn’t build it to add another layer. I built it to provide the independent oversight that was missing. After years of working across pharmacy, care management, data, carriers and consulting, I had seen the same problem from every angle: employers were paying for healthcare without always having the visibility or expertise needed to actively manage it.