Thyme Care Gets Funding From Echo, CVS to Accelerate Expansion

To expand its value-based cancer care model nationwide, Thyme Care has received funding support from Echo Health Ventures, a strategic investment platform investing on behalf of multiple Blues health plans, and CVS Health Ventures, the venture arm of CVS Health. 

Nashville-based Thyme Care describes its business model as challenging the traditional fee-for-service landscape by empowering oncologists as agents of change within novel payment models, allowing them to focus on delivering high-quality care in the clinic, while Thyme Care's oncology-trained Care Team manages patients' needs between visits. 

Through its payer agreements, the company embeds its patient-centered care resources directly within oncology practices, including 24/7 navigation services, operational and actuarial support, and reporting capabilities to accurately measure impact in these new models. 

Thyme Care said its approach is enabling more payers and providers to participate in value-based arrangements and alternative payment models such as CMS’ Enhancing Oncology Model. 

"Through our ongoing work at CVS Health Ventures, we've pinpointed a critical need to find organizations who can empower healthcare providers, without creating abrasion to their existing efforts, while effectively lowering costs and providing high-value patient care," said Alyssa Reisner, CVS Health Ventures. "Thyme Care's provider-driven approach is a powerful catalyst in enabling oncologists to navigate the shift to alternative payment models, fostering patient trust and elevating the role of the provider while driving significant cost savings throughout the care continuum. We're dedicated to supporting Thyme Care's growth by lending our strategic expertise as the company expands nationally."

"The investment from Echo and CVS is a milestone moment for Thyme Care driven by our commitment to working with partners dedicated to rethinking how we deliver and pay for cancer care," said Brad Deiphuis,  M.D., M.B.A., chief operations officer and president at Thyme Care and former advisor to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), in a statement. "We're thrilled to welcome them to the team, and we look forward to leveraging their deep industry insights.”

In March, the company announced that more than 400 oncology practices had joined Thyme Care Oncology Partners (TCOP). Thyme Care said it would partner with TCOP practices to design and implement value-based care programs for patients covered by participating risk-bearing entities and government-sponsored programs. 

To support Thyme Care's growing TCOP partnerships, Mark Lombardi joined the company as senior vice president, provider partnerships. He previously worked at GE Healthcare Financial Services, where he managed provider relationships and led practice transformation for the healthcare-dedicated global financial services firm.

Earlier in May, Thyme Care announced it had hired Julia Frydman, M.D., as the company's first medical director for palliative care. She will launch the company's Enhanced Supportive Care services. This virtual palliative care program will help eligible members and their caregivers manage physical and psychological symptoms and provide an additional layer of support as they navigate living with cancer.

In July 2023, Healthcare Innovation spoke with Bobby Green, M.D., Thyme Care’s co-founder and chief medical officer, who described building a technology-enabled navigation platform, for both clinicians and non-clinicians, to do virtual navigation on a software and analytics platform. “We partner with health plans, which see the value in this and are willing to pay for it. We will take some degree of risk on the cost of care of the populations that we're managing. And when we partner with a health plan and go into a geographic area, we also partner with oncology practices that are in line with the vision of doing this.”