The American Oncology Network (AON), a group of 275 cancer care providers, recently partnered with the value-based oncology enabler Thyme Care to develop a scalable palliative care solution that could be integrated into their cancer care programs.
The organizations published their results in the American Journal of Managed Care. The study was designed to evaluate their participation in the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation’s Enhancing Oncology Model (EOM).
In 2023, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Enhancing Oncology Model, which aims to transform care for cancer patients, reduce spending and improve quality. The model also seeks to place the cancer patient at the center of their care, focusing on the person, rather than the disease, according to a CMS fact sheet. One of the ways providers try to meet this goal is to offer palliative care early during treatment, though the model does not have any explicit requirements to offer palliative care.
“By integrating palliative services early in the oncology workflow, we can address symptoms proactively, facilitate advance care planning, and reduce unnecessary emergency department visits or hospitalizations — all of which align with EOM’s performance targets,” said Dr. Biqi Zhang, senior product manager for Thyme Care, and Dr. Julia Frydman, senior medical director of palliative care for Thyme Care. “This approach supports clinicians in meeting quality measures while also ensuring that care is guided by what matters most to patients. In our view, this is exactly the kind of innovation the EOM is designed to incentivize: putting patients at the center, promoting collaboration across disciplines, and building a sustainable model for high-quality, value-based cancer care.”