Amazon, Berkshire, and JPMorgan to end healthcare joint venture

“Haven has worked best as an incubator of ideas, a place to pilot, test and learn – and a vehicle to share best practices between our companies,” added Dimon.

Haven has appointed Dr Atul Gawande, a surgeon affiliated with Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, who also writes for The New Yorker, as CEO with much fanfare. At the time, Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, recognized the high degree of difficulty of Haven’s mission.

“Success will require the knowledge of an expert, the spirit of a beginner and a long-term focus,” he said.

But since then, there have been few public signs of what Haven was doing. And in May, as the coronavirus pandemic swept the country, Dr Gawande stepped down as chief executive and became chairman of the board. Haven said he plans to seek a new general manager, although he never hired one.

Health care costs and delivery have been a major concern for all three companies, but most notably for Amazon, which has embarked on an unparalleled hiring spree. The online retailer, which declined to comment on the Haven closure, has piloted its own primary care clinics for workers in its warehouses. He said this summer he plans to start with 20 clinics in five cities where he has large operations, providing access to care for more than 115,000 warehouse workers.

Some of the ideas generated by Haven employees have been tested by all three companies, according to one of those familiar with the collaboration. JPMorgan, for example, has been testing telemedicine options – which became much more popular after the coronavirus pandemic forced the country into lockdown last spring – for employees in Ohio and Arizona, the two states where it has the most employees outside of New York.

The bank also tested a program that allows employees to assess the cost of a test or a doctor’s visit before it happens, so they can better prepare to pay their medical bills, has declared the person.