Haven, the joint health care venture between Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase, in 2020 will pilot two health care plans with 30,000 JPMorgan employees in Arizona and Ohio, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
Haven 101: What we know about the Amazon-Berkshire-JPMorgan joint venture so far
Joe Evangelisti, a spokesperson for JPMorgan, confirmed the company's plans.
Background
Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan announced the partnership in January 2018. At the time, the companies said their goal was to identify "technology solutions" that would provide "simplified, high-quality, and transparent health care at a reasonable cost." The companies said the new health care company would be "free from profit-making incentives and constraints."
In February 2019, unsealed court testimony from Haven's COO at the time, Jack Stoddard, revealed that the venture was focused on redesigning health insurance to make it intelligible to employees. Stoddard also said Haven was analyzing data to "understand where there's variation in care, quality, where prices don't match value, where doctors are performing." In addition, he said that Haven wanted to "make it easier for doctors to do good care and to spend more time" with patients.
The venture unveiled its name in March 2019, and in a letter posted on the venture's website, CEO Atul Gawande said that Haven would be an "advocate for the patient and an ally to anyone—clinicians, industry leaders, innovators, policymakers, and others—who makes patient care and costs better."
Haven pilots health plan
The pilot health program, called Haven Healthcare, will be available to 30,000 JPMorgan employees in Arizona and Ohio for 2020, Bloomberg reports. Those employees make up just under 20% of JPMorgan's U.S. workforce, according to Bloomberg. The two plan options will be run by Cigna and Aetna.
Haven's pilot does not require employees to pay deductibles and has certain "perks," including the ability to earn money each month by doing wellness activities and keeping their blood pressure at a specific target, Bloomberg reports. The money earned through these perks can be used to pay for doctor visits or prescriptions.
Haven will monitor how receptive JPMorgan's employees are to the health plans and whether they believe it to be more transparent, one of the people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, Amazon is offering health plans to employees in Connecticut, North Carolina, Utah, and Wisconsin that are not being offered specifically through Haven, but were created by Amazon in consultation with Haven and insurance providers.
The goal of Amazon's health plan is to help employees understand their health costs better and work better with primary care doctors, Bloomberg reports (Davis et al., Bloomberg, 10/31; Morse, HealthcareFinance News, 11/4; Farr, CNBC, 5/16).