Morgan Health invests in Lantern

Founded in 2011, Lantern has helped employers achieve superior outcomes for surgical care, resulting in up to 30% surgical avoidance for musculoskeletal conditions and 4% savings in total medical spend.

Employers are increasingly interested in improving quality and outcomes associated with surgical care. As it currently stands, too many variations in care exist, and employees are often susceptible to long travel and extended absenteeism.

What’s more, covering these procedures can account for one-fifth of total costs, even when they affect only a fraction of the workforce. For self-insured employers, six-figure surgical claims have significantly increased in recent years as more employees navigate complex conditions and more targeted, nuanced interventions are required. There is an unmet need for solutions that help employers control specialty costs while continuing to provide access to high-quality and convenient care for employees.

Traditionally, Centers of Excellence have attempted to address these challenges but often fall short in guiding patients to top providers without sacrificing local access. Morgan Health invested in Lantern because of their more comprehensive “Network of Excellence” approach, which aims to deliver superior outcomes, broader access, and meaningful cost savings for employers and employees. Lantern directly contracts with individual surgeons and assesses providers and facilities based on clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction, and cost – creating a high-impact specialty network in which 98% of members are within driving distance of care, with 80% living less than 50 miles from a network surgeon.

An employee who needs a knee replacement, for example, might have difficulty evaluating surgeon quality, endure long wait times, and face insurance navigation challenges. With Lantern, that employee could connect with a dedicated care advocate who can identify and coordinate access with a high-quality local surgeon (often 24 days faster than the national average)¹ and provide support throughout the care journey, all while the patient saves on out-of-pocket costs and stays closer to home.

As employers face pressure from high-cost claims, Lantern has scaled to serve over 1,000 employer customers and 12 million members nationwide. As a strategic investor, Morgan Health is focused on expanding Lantern’s ability to help employers control costs and improve outcomes, while creating an industry-leading and easy-to-navigate approach for employees.

Lantern has demonstrated significant impact since launching in 2011. Their surgical Network of Excellence is helping employers achieve 4% savings on total medical spend.² Members experience up to 30% surgical avoidance for musculoskeletal conditions.³ Their approach has also helped to reduce downstream costs by minimizing follow-up care, hospital readmissions, and medical needs that can follow complications.⁴

This marks Morgan Health’s 13^th investment and builds on our commitments to expanding specialty care navigation and scaling solutions for high-cost, complex care delivery and management in employer-sponsored insurance. We look forward to working with Lantern to help shift the trajectory of specialty surgical care by advancing more connected, high-quality solutions for employers and their employees.