Specialty care company Lantern and primary care provider Marathon Health introduced a new partnership on Thursday that aims to bring down specialty care spend for employers.
Dallas, Texas-based Lantern directs members of health plans and self-insured employers to the top-performing local providers for surgery, cancer treatment, infusion care or other medical needs. Marathon Health, meanwhile, partners with employer and union plan sponsors to offer in-person and virtual primary care.
Through the new partnership, Marathon employer clients who don’t currently offer Lantern’s specialty care benefit can purchase it directly through Marathon. This simplifies the contracting process and helps integrate primary care with specialty care, according to the companies.
Marathon providers can identify members who are in need of specialty care and refer them to Lantern. Lantern Care Advocates can then reach out to the member and help them with specialist selection, care coordination and recovery support. The partnership is initially focused on orthopedic surgery, which is a top-two cost driver for employers.
“Having worked in the specialty and acute care world where the downstream costs and consequences of fragmented care are most visible, I can tell you that primary care is the highest leverage point we have,” said Chris Pricco, CEO of Marathon Health, in a statement. “When you integrate it with specialty care, you don’t just reduce cost. You change the trajectory of someone’s health. That’s what we’ve built for employers, and we’re honored to partner with Lantern to accelerate that impact.”
This partnership started as a pilot, which found higher engagement and adherence compared to Lantern referrals from other places. For example, referrals from Marathon led to a 47% increase in completed or avoided surgeries. In addition, employers had 53% average savings compared to network rates for necessary procedures.
Colorado Employer Benefit Trust was a pilot participant and said the partnership brought great value.
“This pilot demonstrated how better coordination across our existing benefits ecosystem partners can help more members access the right care, improve adherence, and create measurable value,” said Joe Deba, director with CEBT’s Trust Administrator. “Marathon Health brings so much value to CEBT’s members beyond its high-quality care and has embraced its role to help members navigate the complex healthcare system and better understand which benefits are most relevant to them, including Lantern.”
In launching this partnership, the companies ultimately seek to make it easier for members to navigate care, according to John Zutter, CEO of Lantern.
“When benefits don’t talk to each other, the patient often gets stuck in the middle,” he said in an email. “A primary care provider might give them a list of specialists to reach out to, then they’re on their own. With this partnership, primary care providers are positioned to not only help the member understand a valuable benefit available to them, but also help navigate to that benefit. Without this connectivity, a member might not even know they have access to a program like Lantern that helps them find high-quality specialists and save money, too.”
Photo: mikdam, Getty Images
