Lantern is a Specialty Care Platform that helps employers reduce their specialty care spending and improve outcomes by directing employees to the highest-quality surgeons and infusion and cancer care via their Network of Excellence.. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Lantern President Dickon Waterfield to gain a deeper understanding of the company.
Dickon Waterfield’s Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Waterfield said:
“I’ve spent most of my career in healthcare, particularly at innovative companies that are trying to solve big challenges for U.S. employers. A little over half of all Americans get their healthcare from their employer, and over the course of my career, the costs of providing good health benefits for employees has increased exponentially. Most of my roles have been focused on that central challenge: how do employers provide great healthcare while also managing costs?”
“And I’m really excited about the work we’re doing at Lantern to help employers solve this problem. Specialty care drives about half of all healthcare spending. These are high-stress, low-frequency, but high-severity healthcare moments, like a cancer diagnosis or the need for a surgery or infusion therapy. Not only are these expensive and stressful healthcare moments, but there is wide variation in cost and quality of care – and the two are not correlated.”
“At Lantern, we help employers connect their employees with the best specialty care, provide the support they need to navigate that care journey smoothly, and negotiate the best rates. We’ve supported 60,000 care journeys, and are trusted by some of the nation’s largest private and public sector employers – including Hyatt Hotels, 7-Eleven, and more than 50 unions, local and state governments.”
“I came to Lantern after serving as Chief Commercial Officer at WithMe Health, a pharmacy benefit manager, where I really built an expertise in what is driving costs for employers, and what part of the healthcare spend is actually impactable. Prior to that, I helped run Big Health – a digital therapeutics company with a focus on mental health – that worked with large employers like Comcast, CVS, Google, Target, and The Home Depot.”
“As President of Lantern, I oversee all Commercial lines of the business – Sales, Client Success, Provider Networks, Consultant Relations, Marketing, and Partnerships. I lead key initiatives like partnerships with national health plans to improve access to high-quality specialty care through new channels.”
“Before this role, as Chief Strategy Officer, I developed our cancer program. Then as Chief Commercial Officer, I developed a best-in-class commercial function that drove tremendous growth, hired great leaders, and created strategic new teams, including Consultant Relations and Partnerships.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Waterfield shared:
“Lantern is a Specialty Care Platform that helps employers reduce costs and improve health outcomes for surgery, cancer and infusions. These are low frequency, but highly emotional care decisions where people need support to navigate their options with confidence. Fifty percent of an employer’s health spend is in specialty care, and this category is highly impactable. As the largest health insurance payer in the U.S., employers have tremendous market influence potential. However, they often face tough choices between providing excellent care and reducing costs, frequently shifting expenses to employees without addressing root problems.”
“We challenge this status quo by crowdsourcing employers’ negotiating power to achieve lower rates with high quality surgeons. Most employers don’t have the local employee density to accomplish this on their own, or the bandwidth. But we’ve been collecting qualitative inputs on local surgeons since 2011, as well as the claims data on what different surgeries cost. We use that detail to negotiate directly with high quality surgeons who are happy to offer 50% discounts in exchange for a direct flow of patients and faster reimbursement rates – we pay them in 15 days versus the traditional 6 months to a year. So employers pay 50% less per surgical episode and have the confidence that their people will be cared for by a high-quality surgeon who has passed a rigorous quality review that includes more than 250 appropriateness measures.”
“Our surgery benefit dramatically reduces surgical spend, saving employees $4,000 and employers nearly $20,000 per episode. We emphasize superior patient outcomes and have a complication rate under 1% compared to the national average of 8-15%. We support patients with quick access to all plannable procedures, scheduling them 21 days faster than the national average for specialty care.”
“Lantern’s Cancer offering is a first-of-its-kind oncology solution that helps patients and their families with comprehensive care planning throughout their journey. What we’re most focused on with our cancer program is accelerated access to the best local and national oncologists to validate diagnosis and make sure the treatment plan meets the most current published guidelines. Lantern guarantees that every patient who receives a cancer diagnosis, regardless of age or stage, will be seen in less than 10 days, either locally or at a National Cancer Institute, such as Cleveland Clinic, Fred Hutch or Dana Farber. They will also receive a dedicated Oncology Nurse Navigator and licensed social worker to support them throughout their journey.”
“Our newest Infusion solution partners with leading infusion centers to give members nationwide access to top-tier facilities within driving distance, plus at-home care when appropriate. For employees undergoing treatment for cancer or autoimmune disorders, hospital infusions can cost employers over $75,000 per person annually, making them a very impactable cost driver. By negotiating drug-level pricing and offering a range of alternative sites of care, we help employers manage these expenses while ensuring that their employees receive critical, life-saving treatments with minimal disruption to their daily lives.”
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently? Waterfield acknowledged:
“One of the biggest challenges we see in our field is that benefits leaders often don’t have the tools or resources they need to truly understand what they’re paying for – and what they’re getting in return. As these leaders become more discerning, they’re asking for health solutions that actually improve patient experience and reduce costs. But the truth is, there’s still a lack of clear, consistent ways to measure real savings.”
“That gap has big consequences. With employers expected to spend around $16,000 per employee on healthcare next year – and with costs projected to rise by 8% – it’s more important than ever to have transparent, accurate analysis to guide decisions. The industry needs a standard way to measure savings so we can compare vendors fairly, hold them accountable, and choose benefits that really deliver.”
“To tackle this challenge head-on, our team at Lantern spent over a year developing TrueRate, a standardized savings methodology that addresses some of the biggest issues we’ve seen with traditional claims analysis. We looked at everything: how episodes of care are defined; what’s included in each episode; where the surgery was performed; the proper timeline for claims runout, etc. Then we brought in academic and industry experts to review our work and invited feedback from others in the field before publicly releasing our full methodology in March.”
“By openly sharing our savings methodology, we’ve been able to highlight common barriers to effective savings analysis – like mishandled outliers, improper claims lag adjustments, and incomplete benchmarking – that can skew results by tens of thousands of dollars per case. TrueRate is part of our broader push for more transparency, and a big step toward giving self-funded employers and other at-risk organizations the clarity they need to push for fairer, more sustainable healthcare pricing. Now we’re working to integrate TrueRate into data warehouses so employers and consultants have an easy and consistent way to review the data themselves and make better-informed decisions.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Waterfield noted:
“Since launching, we’ve expanded our platform from a surgery point solution into a comprehensive Specialty Care Platform serving six million members from some of the largest self-insured employers, health plans, and public sector organizations in the U.S. We’ve also built tech capabilities that allow us to engage members differently. Navigating benefit plans and understanding all the options is confusing for members, and our data-driven, personalized campaigns are based on real-time claims data and the member’s unique plan design to reach them through the right channel and at the right time.”
“Just recently, we brought on a new Chief Technology Officer, Falko Buttler, further solidifying our commitment to delivering turnkey benefits. With over 20 years of experience, most recently leading the engineering teams at health tech companies like Accolade, Apree Health, Castlight, and PlushCare, he’ll drive our platform and engineering forward with his expertise in patient care, navigation, and engagement.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Waterfield cited:
“The last year in particular has been especially exciting for us. In 2024, we rebranded from Employer Direct Healthcare and SurgeryPlus to Lantern, a name that reflects our mission to lead the way forward in connecting America’s best workforces with the best specialty care.”
“Last year, we also launched the first independent national infusion network, addressing one of the most significant impactable cost drivers for employers, and announced a partnership with the 32BJ Health Fund, which provides comprehensive benefits to the members and families of SEIU 32BJ.”
“Earlier this year, we announced a partnership with Pelago – the leading digital clinic partner to U.S. businesses and health plans for substance use management – to provide our clients with access to personalized substance use disorder treatment, and publicly released our TrueRate savings methodology. By revealing how we calculate cost savings – and highlighting the limitations of alternative approaches – we’re equipping benefits leaders and employers with the data and tools they need to make smarter, more cost-effective healthcare decisions. We also used this moment to issue a broader call to the healthcare industry: embrace transparency, share your own methodologies, and engage in an open dialogue to improve how we define and deliver value.”
Customer Success Stories
Can you share any specific customer success stories? Waterfield highlighted:
“One great example of Lantern’s impact is our partnership with Hyatt. Since we started working with them in 2022, we’ve helped them save over $16 million in healthcare costs. That’s an average of nearly $30 per employee, per month, which really adds up.”
“What made this partnership so successful was Hyatt’s commitment to making high-quality care more affordable and accessible for their team. They started by using our Centers of Excellence model to reduce the cost of common procedures, and the results were so strong that they decided to expand into more complex care areas like oncology and infusion.”
“It’s been rewarding to see how this work not only drives significant savings but also creates a better care experience for Hyatt’s employees. That’s exactly the kind of impact we’re here to make.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Waterfield affirmed:
“Lantern has the most accessible Specialty Care Network in the industry with more than 2,000 surgeons, 725 facilities and 500+ infusion centers and 100% in-home coverage nationwide. Our ability to directly contract with providers is the foundation of our Network of Excellence approach. Centers of Excellence aim to reduce costs while maintaining quality, but it can be hard to incentivize employees to use these programs, especially when getting care at a center of excellence typically requires travel, which comes with logistical headaches for people who need care at high-intensity healthcare moments.”
“Rather than requiring employees to travel, we identify the best providers locally to create a network within employers’ regions, bringing care closer to home. Our providers are all carefully vetted for licensure and certification, clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction, and site of care options. 80% of our members have a great care option within 50 miles because our focus has always been on local access.”
“Lantern is also a licensed third-party administrator, which means we can control how quickly our providers are reimbursed and it gives us more flexibility in plan design, such as waiving member cost share – another big lever for driving strong utilization.”
“We’re setting ourselves apart from competitors and leading the industry by demonstrating that high-quality care doesn’t have to come at high costs. By strategically targeting the most impactable spend areas in healthcare and fundamentally reshaping the economic dynamics, we’re empowering employers to reclaim their role as powerful market influencers, ultimately driving down costs and improving outcomes for millions of Americans.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the future company goals? Waterfield emphasized:
“Quality has always been a key pillar of our work, but in 2025 we’re doubling down on our commitment to clinical excellence by integrating advanced analytics from Global Appropriateness Measures (GAM). This partnership will enhance our ability to identify top-performing providers based on key factors like appropriateness of care, cost efficiency, and patient satisfaction. Adding even more quality measure to our already extensive vetting process will ensure that our Network of Excellence is held to the highest clinical standards.”
“We’re also redefining patient outcomes by prioritizing financial well-being as a critical component of care. We recognize that inaccessible care due to cost leads to worse health outcomes, and even more critical health episodes, over time. For employees, this can result in reduced productivity and extended absences, or the inability to return to work, further compounding financial challenges. By addressing barriers to specialty care affordability and finding innovative solutions to increase employer and employee engagement with patient-centered benefits, we aim to expand access and confront the healthcare affordability crisis head-on.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Waterfield concluded:
“One of my favorite memories at Lantern was spending time with The Home Depot Foundation last year, putting my home improvement skills to work and raising nearly $8 million for our veterans. The Foundation does amazing work supporting veterans and training skilled tradespeople through incredible fundraising efforts and hands-on initiatives like this. It was so rewarding to give back, and I’m grateful the Home Depot team invited me to participate.”
