Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are launching a new company aimed at cutting healthcare costs for their U.S. employees.
Here are six things to know about the partnership.
1. In addition to reducing healthcare costs, the companies are aiming to improve employee satisfaction through the new venture. Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan are hoping the sheer size of each company and their complementary areas of expertise will help them tackle these issues.
2. "Our people want transparency, knowledge and control when it comes to managing their healthcare," said Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan. "The three of our companies have extraordinary resources, and our goal is to create solutions that benefit our U.S. employees, their families and, potentially, all Americans."
3. The companies said the project, which is in the early planning stage, will initially focus on technology solutions.
4. "The healthcare system is complex, and we enter into this challenge open-eyed about the degree of difficulty," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. "Hard as it might be, reducing healthcare's burden on the economy while improving outcomes for employees and their families would be worth the effort. Success is going to require talented experts, a beginner's mind, and a long-term orientation."
5. The new venture will be jointly spearheaded by Todd Combs, an investment officer of Berkshire Hathaway; Marvelle Sullivan Berchtold, a managing director of JPMorgan Chase; and Beth Galetti, a senior vice president at Amazon.
6. "The ballooning costs of healthcare act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy," said Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett. "Our group does not come to this problem with answers. But we also do not accept it as inevitable. Rather, we share the belief that putting our collective resources behind the country's best talent can, in time, check the rise in health costs while concurrently enhancing patient satisfaction and outcomes."
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