Thyme Care, a value-based cancer care navigation startup, pocketed $95 million in fresh funding to fuel its growth into new markets and accelerate partnerships with oncology and primary care practices and health plans.
Founded in 2020, the startup aims to guide patients through every phase of the “cancer journey,” from the peri-diagnostic period, when they learn that they may have cancer, to the post-diagnostic period. The company partners with health plans, employers and risk-bearing providers to help bring down the cost of cancer care while also improving patients' health, according to executives.
The startup assumes two-sided financial risk to align payment incentives with care quality to improve health outcomes and reduce total cost of care.
The company combines 24/7 specialized cancer care navigation services, technology and data insights and oncologist-led therapeutic interventions. Thyme Care developed a tech-enabled care team that integrates with more than 800 oncologists as part of its Thyme Care Oncology Partners for a hybrid collaborative care model, according to the company.
Thyme Care currently manages 10,000 patients and that number is expected to triple in 2025, president and chief operating officer Brad Diephuis told Fierce Healthcare. The company currently serves patients in 31 states.
"This funding is going to support our ability to drive continued growth," he said in an interview. "We are continuing to build out the infrastructure to replicate the success we've had so far in our in our existing markets to expand into new markets and with larger and larger partnerships."
The company says it's actively managing more than a half-billion dollars in medical spend across its risk-based contracts and is on pace to more than triple that number within the next year. And, the company has more than doubled its oncology partnerships over the past six months, with active plans to expand across the country through additional contracts with health plans, employers and risk-bearing primary care groups.
The latest capital raise includes $55 million in equity funding backed by existing investors CVS Health Ventures, Town Hall Ventures, a16z Bio + Health, AlleyCorp, Echo Health Ventures, Frist Cressey Ventures and Foresite Capital along with new investor Concord Health Partners. Banc of California will provide an additional $40 million in debt financing.
Thyme Care, a 2024 Fierce 15 company, has raised $178 million to date, including $60 million in series B funding last August. The company did not disclose its current valuation.
The startup is focused on bringing its wraparound cancer care services to more patients. "We employ a team of nurses, social workers, care coordinators and care partners to provide supportive services for both clinical and non-clinical needs for patients as they're going through cancer treatment. We also partner closely with local oncology practices on the ground and each of the markets that we work in to both coordinate care more effectively as well as to make sure that patients are having the most high-quality, high-value, cost-effective care," Diephuis said.
In an interview earlier this year, CEO and co-founder Robin Shah said he likes to think of Thyme Care as a village, providing support for social needs, finances, transportation, food security, rent and utilities. And of course, Thyme also offers advice and services about clinical matters.
Thyme Care wants to "reshape" the landscape of oncology to ensure better care and affordability, Shah said in a statement. "Our latest funding is a testament to the dedication and expertise of our incredible team, whose relentless efforts drive our mission to transform the cancer care experience forward," he said.
Cancer is one of the biggest drivers of healthcare spending, costing the United States more than $200 billion per year, according to data from the National Cancer Institute.
Thyme Care's approach is to focus on value-based care and risk-based arrangements to help drive down the costs of cancer care. Drug costs account for up to 70% of the total cost of care, according to some research, and many life-saving cancer therapies cost upwards of $200,000 per year, a 2023 report found. Meanwhile, the experience of cancer care varies widely based on an individual’s location, access to care, and ability to navigate the healthcare system. Many patients, particularly those already facing socio-economic barriers, experience gaps in support, financial toxicity, and a lack of coordination between visits, executives said.
Thyme Care claims its cancer care navigation and support services can help drive significant cost savings. Its core navigation services, including interventions to minimize acute care utilization and increase access to social services, show a $594 reduction in total costs per month for navigated patients compared to a control group, according to data presented at the 2023 ASCO Quality Care Symposium.
The majority of these savings were attributed to a $421 reduction in inpatient hospitalization-related spending. There were also statistically significant reductions in laboratory spend ($40) and radiation treatment ($110) in the navigated cohort, the company reported.
The research also showed that navigated members were connected to resources related to social determinants of health, including financial assistance (49%), food insecurity (28%), and transportation access (20%), education and support services related to side effects (49%) and treatment and diagnosis (25%).
"Our business model is to work with anybody holding total cost of care risk for patients, so that can be Medicare Advantage plan, a risk-bearing provider group that is taking downside risk from a health plan as well as employers, anybody who is holding that total cost of care risk. One of our largest clients today is Oak Street Health, which is a risk-bearing provider group that takes a delegated risk from different Medicare Advantage plans," Diephuis said. "Our value proposition to those groups is to say, 'We're going to help your members who are going through active cancer treatment have lower overall total cost of care, while also improving the quality and the member experience.' Our customers feel like they're able to get to a place where they can do better by their members and be more successful on their bottom line."
When Thyme Care's navigation services save customers money, the company shares those financial savings with them. If customers don't save money, based on benchmarks, Thyme Care has recently pledged to refund the cost of its services but has not yet had to repay any customers.
"We review the data with our customers usually after a year of performance. We say, 'OK, have we generated savings above our fees relative to the actuarial benchmarks that our two groups have established?' If we don't generate those savings, we theoretically owe those fees back to our customers," Diephuis said. "Based on our data to date and all of our work to date, we are generating savings. It's a nice way to align the incentives where we can tell our customers, 'Look, you're only going to ultimately have to pay Thyme Care if you are getting the value.' When we generate more savings, we are more financially successful."
Thyme Care's internal data along with public data and published research indicates that wraparound cancer care services can be very effective for patients in reducing hospitalizations and improving quality of care which bolstered the company's transition to that type of model, he noted. "When we put all that together, that gave us the confidence to go into these types of contractual arrangements," Diephius said.
To reduce oncologic drug spend across the cancer care system, Thyme Care developed provider-led pharmacy intervention techniques, including drug waste minimization protocols and clinically equivalent drug substitutions. Over the past year, Thyme Care has rapidly expanded its Thyme Care Oncology Partner (TCOP) partnerships to spearhead value-based cancer care. By operating as an extension of the practice, Thyme Care deploys virtual care delivery services and analytic capabilities to reduce administrative burden, unlock practice efficiency, and enable success in new payment arrangements, according to executives.
Diephius said Thyme Care's model represents a more collaborative, patient-centric approach in the oncology space compared to the traditional fee-for-service environment that relies heavily on utilization management and prior authorization to control costs.
"Whether it's a risk-bearing provider group or a health insurance plan, they are increasingly seeing cancer as both a large segment of spend and an area that is growing faster than the overall pace of healthcare growth. They are looking at this as an area that they need to figure out solutions for," he said.
Thyme Care initially focused on partnering with health plans and is now expanding its work with primary care groups.
"As an example with Oak Street Health we've been able to really demonstrate the value of a coordinated care team on our end that can very closely interface back with a well-run, high-functioning primary care group like Oak Street Health. We've been able to see how effective our care model can be when you when you combine our set of services with high-functioning primary care groups," he said.
As a practicing primary care physician, Diephius knows that cancer patients often lose touch with their primary care providers during treatment and PCPs often don't have much visibility into their patients' care. "We're able to bridge those gaps and make sure that as a patient is getting this medication as part of that chemotherapy treatment, it may exacerbate one of their non-oncologic co-morbidities like their heart failure or their diabetes, so let's make sure that that communication happens back to that primary care doctor."
He added, "We've seen tremendous value in our set of services in that space. I think it is an exciting growth area for Thyme Care."
James Olsen, founder and managing partner at Concord, said Thyme Care's provider-led interventions targeting ballooning oncologic drug spend and acute care utilization highlight the company's unique approach to system-wide affordability. "Their deep partnerships in cancer care mark their proven success," Olsen said, adding that Concord's investment will help the company "scale in a market where its differentiated solution can so greatly impact cost and quality."