Palliative care provider Tuesday Health has penned an agreement with the Medicare Advantage organization CareSource to offer services to its beneficiaries.
Tuesday Health’s supportive care services operate on hybrid in-person and virtual models, according to Dr. Mihir Kamdar, head of care delivery of Tuesday Health. Nurses and advanced practice practitioners (APPs) provide clinical care to patients in their homes. Layered over that is the mytuesday app, which is designed for continuous patient monitoring and allows patients to self-report symptoms or changes in their conditions.
In addition, Tuesday’s APPs will offer telehealth services. These clinicians can also provide additional remote support or consultations during in-person home visits.
The expanded collaboration with CareSource will bring additional palliative care resources to patients in northeast Ohio.
“CareSource’s commitment to continually do better for the most vulnerable members in our community is fully aligned with Tuesday Health mission and focus. It has been a natural and aligned partnership from our first discussion with a focus on bringing innovation and services to members that suffer from serious illness as well as their caregivers.” Tuesday Health CEO Jim Wieland told Palliative Care News. “The launch of the Tuesday Health-CareSource partnership is a result of several months of collaborative efforts and a joint commitment to demonstrate that through early integrated palliative care you can improve the quality of life for members living with serious illness and their caregivers while lowering overall cost of care.”
The partnership comes on the heels of a $60 million funding round for Tuesday Health in May, with CareSource was among the investors. Other participants included Valtruis, Blue Venture Fund and Mass General Brigham Ventures.
The startup Tuesday Health launched in 2023, emerging from a partnership between Valtruis and Mass General Brigham Ventures. The company expects to develop similar partnerships in Ohio markets as well as two to three other states by early 2025, according to Wieland.
Through these partnerships, Tuesday will provide care to seriously ill patients who are at risk of poor quality of life due to symptom burden, high likelihood of emergency department visits and hospitalizations and a difficult downstream end-of-life experience with high associated costs of care, Kamdar indicated.
“Our pilot population is a [dual-eligible] population with a wide range of serious illnesses including dementia, heart failure, congestive heart failure, COPD, end-stage renal disease and multiple chronic illnesses,” Kamdar told Palliative Care News.
The Tuesday Health partnership is only the most recent palliative care investment from CareSource. Last summer, the Medicare Advantage company inked a partnership agreement with the palliative care operator Radiant Health. In April 2023, CareSource established a similar relationship with Pure Healthcare.
CareSource is a nonprofit managed care organization with more than 2 million members, offering coverage through Medicaid, the Health Insurance Marketplace and Medicare products.
“Tuesday Health can tackle complex medical cases and surround patients with comprehensive, whole-person care, while also supporting their caregivers,” said Steve Ringel, Ohio Market President for CareSource, in a statement. “They have the same mission-driven, patient-centered approach as CareSource, and share our passion for innovation, value and operational excellence. This is a natural partnership of like-minded people and organizations and I’m excited about the benefits it will bring to CareSource’s MyCare Ohio members.”