Jessica Lopez-Liggett was named commercial state plan president for Anthem’s Indiana business in February, coming at a time when employers nationally are contending with the highest increase in benefits costs in at least a decade. Now about a month in, she’s framing a new orthopedic network as both a direct response to those pressures and a preview of where the insurer is heading.
The HealthSync Designated Orthopedic Network, which launched at the start of the year with Indianapolis-based OrthoIndy and Franciscan Health’s Forté Sports Medicine and Orthopedics in Carmel, steers Anthem members toward providers meeting specific cost and quality benchmarks. Anthem says the arrangement can reduce costs for joint replacement procedures by up to 50% compared to out-of-network or non-designated options.
“One of the persistent structural issues that we see in the market is typically you have a wide variation of cost and quality,” Ms. Lopez-Liggett told Becker’s. “We used our Blue Distinction Centers quality metrics. We started there first, narrowed it down to OrthoIndy and Franciscan Forté, and then worked on the pricing component.”
Ms. Lopez-Liggett noted that the initiative is structured as a designated network program rather than a traditional narrow network. The network also combines high-quality, lower-cost providers with concierge navigation through scheduling and post-surgical follow-up services. OrthoIndy, which spent two years collaborating with Anthem on the arrangement, provides what Ms. Lopez-Liggett called “a white glove experience” that follows members through the episode of care. She said other orthopedic groups can join if they meet the Blue Distinction quality criteria and agree to the pricing terms.
Employer demand shaped the initiative from the start, she said, with the HealthSync network now covering roughly 200,000 members across multiple large Indiana employers.
“The employer market has been pretty open and vocal about looking for centers of excellence,” Ms. Lopez-Liggett added. “They know that we have the data components. They know we know where the facilities and providers are that have the best quality outcomes, and so they lean into us for that knowledge.”
Indiana has become something of a laboratory for employer-focused healthcare policy. The state was the first to create a tax credit incentivizing ICHRA adoption among small businesses, and a 2025 law requires its largest nonprofit hospital systems to offer employers direct contracting rates capped at 260% of Medicare.
Ms. Lopez-Liggett said the new designated network is partly a counter-offer to those types of arrangements.
“Direct to employer arrangements can meet an immediate need, but the reality is that’s a lot of work on the employer,” she said. “The employers then turn to us to say, you’re our payer, how do we lean into you? You’re already doing all of this work. And so this is us showcasing to our employer community that we’re hearing you, we’re trying to help.”
She said she expects the approach to expand to other specialties where cost and quality variation is significant.
“This is just the first lever that we’ll be pulling,” she said. “There will be more to come.”
“We need to stop reacting to rising costs and instead take a step back and really reimagine how care is delivered,” she added. “I truly think Indiana can be a model for how affordability and quality coexist.”
