How Lantern and Morgan Health Are Re-Wiring Employer Healthcare, And Why Narrow Networks Are Suddenly Worth a Second Look (with Dan Mendelson, CEO Morgan Health and John Zutter, CEO Lantern)

Blake Madden
Blake Madden
June 16, 2026

Blake Madden sits down with two of the people most responsible for re-wiring the employer side of healthcare right now: Dan Mendelson, CEO of Morgan Health — JPMorgan Chase’s $280M healthcare investment arm — and John Zutter, CEO of Lantern, a specialty care navigation platform now covering 12 million member lives.

The conversation covers serious ground:

  • How Lantern cracked the code on surgeons of excellence at a community level
  • Why Dan thinks traditional payer networks are failing
  • The $10M cell & gene therapy math nobody at the employer level wants to run
  • Whether AI finally makes narrow networks work this time around
  • Why specialty care, oncology, infusions, and specialty drugs represent ~60% of total employer healthcare spend — and are growing 1.5x to 3x faster than overall trend

If you sell into employers, sit on a benefits committee, run a self-funded plan, or invest in this corner of the market, this one’s worth blocking off the time for.

Navvis partners with health systems and health plans to deliver real performance improvement across value-based care and fee-for-service models.

⁠⁠https://navvishealthcare.com/vbc⁠⁠

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Follow Blake Madden on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakecmadden/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 

Follow Dan Mendelson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dnmendelson/ 

Follow John Zutter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-zutter-687000a/ 

Blake Madden
Blake Madden