Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JP Morgan announced in January that they will partner on ways to reduce health-care costs while looking to improve health care for their 1.1 million employees. The three companies will pursue this long-term endeavor through the creation of an independent, private company uninhibited by profit-making incentives and constraints.
In addition to decreasing costs, the new company hopes to improve employee satisfaction by leveraging their parent companies’ combined scale and capabilities and creating solutions that will benefit employees, their families and, potentially, all Americans.
In a press release, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett noted that the group does not have clear answers for this problem but does share the belief that putting their collective resources behind the country’s best talent can, in time, check the rise in health costs and enhance patient satisfaction and outcomes.
The partnership is in the early planning stages, with the initial formation of the company spearheaded by Todd Combs, an investment officer at Berkshire Hathaway; Marvelle Sullivan Berchtold, a managing director at JPMorgan Chase; and Beth Galetti, a senior vice president at Amazon. The management team plans to reveal the headquarters location and other vital operational details later.