The cancer journey is filled with complexity, uncertainty, and emotional weight. If you or a loved one has ever faced a diagnosis, you know all too well that the path forward can be overwhelming—filled with difficult decisions, fragmented systems, and a heavy burden of responsibilities. But when support across the cancer care journey is personalized to the individual, outcomes change: members respond more positively, feel more supported, and experience care that truly meets their unique needs.
Many health plans invest in building care navigation and case management solutions that offer meaningful support for their members. Yet cancer presents a uniquely complex challenge—one that often surpasses the scope of traditional models. Effectively supporting members through a cancer diagnosis requires specialized expertise, tailored interventions, and a deep understanding of the emotional, clinical, and financial toll of the care journey, not to mention strategies to manage the rising cost of care for this population. And on top of it all, it requires the ability to do all of this at scale.
Even members who are getting the best care from their oncologists often experience gaps that impact them significantly:
Limited support between appointments: Support between visits is delayed, limited, or nonexistent, leaving members to self-navigate symptoms, logistics, and care decisions.
Health literacy and benefits education are limited, especially during times of stress and confusion. Among members with cancer, it has been proven that lower health literacy is associated with higher all-cause mortality across multiple cancer types and stages.
Social challenges—like transportation, food insecurity, or financial toxicity—are often not prioritized. ~17% to 25% of people with cancer experience food insecurity during or after treatment, with higher rates among lower-income and minority populations.
Members feel isolated, unsure of where to turn for trusted, timely help. More than half of members with cancer and survivors experience an aspect of social isolation at least some of the time, and 31% report feeling lonely very or somewhat often.
The absence of coordinated, proactive support leads to real consequences: delays in care, disengagement, and costly, avoidable utilization of acute/ER/urgent services. These systemic gaps persist even in high-performing provider groups.
Health plans want to support their members with cancer— but doing so consistently, proactively, and at scale requires a different kind of investment. Thyme Care’s model is targeted for this challenge. We combine oncology-trained expertise, compassionate communication, and proactive engagement through an infrastructure that traditional care models don’t have the resources to replicate. Our approach is rooted in accessibility and personalization—enhancing and extending what health plans offer by delivering:
Pre-Diagnosis: A Time of Heightened Anxiety and Uncertainty
Many members with cancer begin their journey in uncertainty—navigating abnormal screenings, unexplained symptoms, or delayed referrals. Once a potential diagnosis is raised, they’re often left to figure out next steps on their own: how to confirm the diagnosis, whether to seek a second opinion, where to go for treatment, and what their insurance will cover. For working-age individuals, this uncertainty is compounded by everything else they’re juggling—managing a full-time job, raising children, caring for aging parents, or maintaining financial stability. As survivorship grows, so does the need to extend the same level of care and attention into this next phase of the journey. And, at the point of diagnosis, they must quickly make life-altering decisions related to their prognosis, treatment options, and more—often with minimal support or clarity.
40% of members with cancer report significant psychological distress or worsening mental health around the time of diagnosis and treatment initiation. Feelings of anxiety, confusion, and depression are common, and often lead to delayed treatment during this early phase.
Infrastructure Designed Specifically for Cancer
At the core of our model is a scalable, pod-based Care Team structure— an interdisciplinary team of oncology-trained nurses, social workers, resource specialists, and Medical Directors. Our Care Team is organized by functional units, called pods, designed to build efficiency and leverage expertise. Members engaged with Thyme Care maintain a relationship with their Care Team throughout their journey, and are even guided to specialist teams who offer dedicated support to address high-impact needs when escalation is required. A pod consistently engages with a member, adapting to the unique and evolving needs of that individual.
This is not a quick add-on: it’s an intentionally designed team-based model that provides 24/7 support tailored to each member’s personal goals, clinical barriers, and emotional concerns. The specialization, flexibility, and scale of this structure require the kind of investment and focus that may be challenging for most health plans to take on alone.
Tech-enabled Platform Ensures Members Stay on Track
Thyme Box is our purpose-built oncology navigation platform that enables our Care Team to deliver scalable, proactive support with both the provider and member experience in mind. The platform integrates with EHRs and aggregates data from multiple sources to pre-populate comprehensive, real-time member profiles. This gives our Care Team immediate visibility into a member’s needs and informs the right level of care for each situation. Through built-in, evidence-based support playbooks and oncology analytics, Thyme Box guides the delivery of interventions that improve both experience and outcomes in a consistent way that ensures quality.
Thyme Box also empowers member engagement by streamlining communication and data collection in a way that many case management platforms cannot. Members can easily share needs and concerns through validated assessments, including electronic patient-reported outcomes (ePROs), based on NCI’s PRO-CTCAE and NCCN’s Distress Thermometer. These insights automatically trigger timely action from our Care Team before the need for escalation, ensuring no concern goes unaddressed:
Furthermore, we have early identification of social determinants of health (SDOH) needs built in, whether it’s clinical, behavioral, or social. Our surveys surface emotional and psychosocial support needs proactively, which allows for timely, appropriate intervention.
A Model That is Proven to Improve Member Satisfaction and Retention
Trust isn’t built through a hotline or a one-off outreach. Our members have ongoing relationships with a consistent Care Team who understand their personal and clinical needs. This continuity is essential to uncovering deeper concerns, influencing decisions, and delivering care that aligns with the whole person. Additionally, we’ve invested in the resources to ensure members always have timely access to the support they need:
Thyme Care’s approach fosters trust, improves adherence, and creates continuity across fragmented systems. Here is an example of how Thyme Care support made that extra difference in a real member’s lives:
“One day while doing chores, Herman got a call from Thyme Care—a cancer support service included with her health plan, at no extra cost.
Herman started talking to her Thyme Care Partner, Inti, who wanted to know all about Herman: her life and dreams, goals for her care and expectations, worries and fears.
Their conversations became regular check-ins filled with empathy, guidance, and genuine care. Each call helped ease Herman’s concerns and gave her confidence. Whether she had questions, needed help coordinating care, or simply wanted someone to talk to, Thyme Care was there.
Looking back, Herman describes Thyme Care as more than just a service—it was a trusted companion through every step of her cancer journey.”
Health plans that invest in proactive, personalized cancer-specific navigation see:
Better health outcomes: Members are more likely to stay on treatment and avoid complications.
Lower total cost of care: Early interventions and coordinated care reduce high-cost acute care episodes.
Higher satisfaction and retention: When members feel cared for, they stay. Thyme Care is proud to have a 9/10 member satisfaction rate.
Ready to transform your strategy with personalized, proactive support for your members with cancer?
Connect with us to learn more about partnering for better cancer care.