How Hyatt Tackled Specialty Care and Saved Money Doing It

When Hyatt Hotels saw that surgical care was driving up healthcare spend in 2021, they knew they needed to find solution to steer members to the highest quality care.

They explored the Centers of Excellence model, and a year later, launched Lantern’s surgery program. Dawn Beaudin, VP of Benefits at Hyatt, said because of the great savings and care colleagues received, they then decided to launch Lantern’s infusions and cancer care programs last year.

Beaudin recently sat down with us to share how Lantern’s integrated Specialty Care Platform is a win-win for their company and colleagues. Listen in:

Hyatt Ensures High-Quality Surgery

When Hyatt launched Lantern’s surgery solution, the benefits team decided they wouldn’t ease colleagues into a new program. They required colleagues to use Lantern for spine, joint, and bariatric procedures — a move she acknowledged was “aggressive.”

“We felt it was the right thing to do based on financial savings opportunities,” Beaudin said. “And, also, we felt it was a win-win because we weren’t taking anything away from the colleagues — we were giving them the opportunity to ensure they got high-quality surgeons that would take care of them.”

Lantern ensures high-quality care thanks to a dedicated clinical care team and advocates who support members throughout their healthcare journeys, rigorous vetting of every surgeon accepted into their Network of Excellence, and patient-reported outcomes (PROMs) which assess how patients feel and function after treatment.

The benefits team quickly saw how quality care pays off. “We’ve definitely seen significant savings from the program,” Beaudin said.

Hyatt Moves Infusion Treatments to Lower-Cost Care Settings

Next, Hyatt’s benefits team noticed that infusion costs were rising fast. Hospital settings mark up medication prices significantly, and Hyatt knew there had to be a better way.

Lantern’s infusion therapy program, part of its Network of Excellence, gave them a path forward to move treatments to lower-cost settings — and when possible, into members’ own homes.

“The infusion program gave us an opportunity to take those infusion medications out of the hospital settings,” Beaudin said. “It allowed us, again, to have a win-win of not only the savings for the plan, but also a better experience.”

Hyatt Launches Cancer Care Program to Help Colleagues

Cancer was the hardest problem to solve, Beaudin said, and the most urgent. Hyatt was seeing an increasing incidence of cancer in their population, a pattern employers across the country recognize. Dawn needed something that could address the human stakes of a cancer diagnosis and manage the cost impact.

“We were looking for a solution that could help us on both ends of that equation. Lantern’s program did just that,” Beaudin said. “It provided us with oncology nurse navigators that were able to provide our colleagues with the care they needed, getting their questions answered, holding their hand through the diagnosis and treatment, making them feel like their employer cared about their health and their wellbeing.”

Through Lantern’s partnership with Access Hope, Hyatt members also gained access to NCI-level oncology specialists who collaborated with local oncologists — ensuring the right diagnosis, the right treatment plan and smarter cost management. And Beaudin said the stories share have been extraordinary.

“We’ve heard a lot of anecdotal stories from our colleagues that have just raved about the care that they’ve gotten from the Care Advocates,” she said. “A heartfelt thank you to all of our Care Advocates that help our Hyatt colleagues every day. We believe in the purpose of care so that people can be their best.”