05/01/2021 09:14
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After three years ago the agreement announced on January 30th 2018 between the titans flopped Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway e JP Morgan Chase, to be precise la joint venture Haven, designed to create a group active in healthcare. The end, therefore, for the ambitious project that had set itself the goal of lower health costs supported by employees of Corporate America, starting with those supported by the staff of the three giants.
At the time Bloomberg pointed out that, although Haven would only offer services to employees of the three giants, the news was relevant, also due to the greater presence that Amazon would have in the health services sector.
Excited the statements of the number one of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett, who had commented:
“The continuing rise in healthcare costs affects the American economy eat a lonely look. Our group does not intend to give answers to this problem, but neither does it accept that such a situation is inevitable. Rather, we share the view that putting our resources at the disposal of the best talent in the country can, over time, contribute to control the rise in health care costs and to contribute to strengthening the satisfaction and conditions of patients “.
Presentation of the project with great fanfare also by Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, who expressed himself as follows:
“When it comes to his health, our people want transparency, knowledge and control. Our three companies have extraordinary resources, and our goal is to create solutions that benefit our US employees, their families and, potentially, all Americans. “
US health care: intricate system that costs the US economy 3.5 trillion a year
But no: after three years the project failed, confirming how difficult it is to be able to make changes to the US health system, a system that the CNBC defines as complicated and overly consolidated, and which includes a network of doctors, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, intermediaries, which costs the US economy a total of $ 3.5 trillion every year.
Something wasn’t going well leaked last year when Warren Buffett hinted that there was no guarantee that Haven would actually be operational.
According to what was reported by the CNBC, which released the news exclusively, the key problem would have been represented by the fact that, while Haven was churning out new ideas, each of the three giants participating in the joint venture, therefore Berkshire, JP Morgan and Amazon, was launching projects separate agreed with their employees, making superfluous the same reason for being of the joint venture.
The news follows the decision of Haven’s CEO, the doctor Atul Gawande, to resign last May.
Brooke Thurston, spokesperson for the joint venture, confirmed the company’s plans to close, issuing the following statement:
“The Haven team has made good progress in exploring a wide range of solutions in healthcare, as well as testing new ways to facilitate access toprimary medical care, simplify the understanding and use of insurance benefits, and also make it easier to access prescription drugs. Moving forward, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JP Morgan Chase will leverage their knowledge and continue to collaborate informally, in order to launch programs suited to the specific needs of our employees “.
The goal is therefore to continue to collaborate in a moment that is, among other things, crucial for American and worldwide healthcare, grappling with the pandemic of coronavirus Covid-19 and with the need to manage the administration of vaccines to citizens as efficiently and quickly as possible.
In an email to JP Morgan employees, he ceo Jamie Dimon reassured that no changes will be made to the benefits launched for staff, and added that Haven will work together with Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway to relocate the workforce (57 joint venture employees), following its closure ( which will happen next month, at the end of February).
Meanwhile, CNN recalls how Amazon is stepping up its efforts to have a greater presence in the healthcare business. Jeff Bezos giant has already bought the online pharmacy PillPack and recently launched several plans targeting drug delivery with Amazon Pharmacy, with discounts up to -80% on generic drugs and up to -40% on prescription drugs for customers of Amazon Prime.
The announcement, which came in mid-November, caused a real earthquake on Wall Street, causing stocks of companies active in the sector such as CVS, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Rite Aid e GoodRx, the latter company that helps consumers find discounts on prescription drugs. The same stocks appreciated yesterday the news of the dismantling of Haven: UnitedHealth Group, Humana and CVS Health all rose by more than + 2% after the publication of the Cnbc article.
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