Details are beginning to emerge around the business initiative created by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JP Morgan Chase last year. According to a Feb. 20 report in Morningstar, “A health-care joint venture launched by Amazon.com Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. is looking at how to redesign health insurance, among other efforts, according to newly unsealed court testimony from an executive at the health startup.”
As a Jan. 31, 2018 report in then-Healthcare Informatics noted, “With an ambitious-sounding, if vaguely worded, announcement, three corporate giants—Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced Jan. 30 that they were launching an initiative to improve satisfaction and reduce costs for their companies’ employees. The three companies’ announcement Wednesday morning opened thus: ‘Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) announced today that they are partnering on ways to address healthcare for their U.S. employees, with the aim of improving employee satisfaction and reducing costs. The three companies, which bring their scale and complementary expertise to this long-term effort, will pursue this objective through an independent company that is free from profit-making incentives and constraints. The initial focus of the new company will be on technology solutions that will provide U.S. employees and their families with simplified, high-quality and transparent healthcare at a reasonable cost.’”
The Jan. 30, 2018 announcement added that “Tackling the enormous challenges of healthcare and harnessing its full benefits are among the greatest issues facing society today. By bringing together three of the world’s leading organizations into this new and innovative construct, the group hopes to draw on its combined capabilities and resources to take a fresh approach to these critical matters.” The stated goals provided by the three companies at the time included “trying to improve health care and rein in costs for their employees. The still-unnamed venture has released few specifics, however, about its long-term aims.”
Meanwhile, last week’s Morningstar report noted that “Chief Operating Officer Jack Stoddard shed some light while testifying in federal court in Boston late last month. He was there for a hearing in a lawsuit filed by UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s Optum health-services unit, which aims to stop a former employee from working for the new venture. In testimony unsealed Wednesday, Mr. Stoddard said the venture is focusing on the complexity of health insurance and asking if it can ‘reinvent what insurance looks like in terms of benefit design?’ He said workers are often confused about what their plans cover. Employers could try different approaches and see what works, he suggested. A spokeswoman for the venture declined to comment.”
In addition, the Morningstar report noted that “Mr. Stoddard had testified that the venture will be deploying smaller-scale tests of ideas like making primary-care access easier, or maintenance drugs cheaper.”
