On August 27, 2024, Thyme Care announced an appointment that had been rumored for weeks: Lalan Wilfong, MD, a 20-year medical oncologist with Texas Oncology, would join Thyme Care in Nashville, Tennessee, as senior vice president of value-based care.1 Wilfong’s move comes after nearly a decade in a series of value-based care positions with McKesson Corporation and The US Oncology Network.Why the change? In an interview and in statements through Thyme Care, Wilfong says he’s motivated to truly tackle practice transformation in oncology. Yes, there have been successes, but achieving the Holy Grail of improved patient experience, better outcomes, and lower costs has been elusive. Thyme Care’s value-based model is a winner, he says, as CMS is finally reimbursing practices for patient navigation—for managing the times “in between” appointments.
“The biggest thing I started recognizing was that the challenge of doing novel contracting the way we’ve historically been doing it was that payers would come up with these programs, then they would have to contract with each practice independently to execute those programs. Sometimes it worked out; many times, it didn’t,” Wilfong said.