Health Venture of Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgen Has a Name: Haven
March 06 2019 - 4:41PM
Dow Jones News
By Anna Wilde Mathews
The high-profile health-care venture launched last year by
Amazon.com Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase &
Co. finally has a name: Haven.
The new company, which has formally released almost no
information about its plans, is also unveiling a website, which
includes a letter from Chief Executive Atul Gawande, a well-known
writer and surgeon. But the site appears to add little new detail
on the venture's plans. Some information already had emerged in an
ongoing court case filed by UnitedHealth Group Inc. against one of
its own former employees, who is now working for Haven.
Dr. Gawande's letter says that Haven "will create new solutions
and work to change systems, technologies, contracts, policy and
whatever else is in the way of better health care."
Haven, which was incorporated in Delaware as a limited liability
company formally named Tcorp62018, will initially focus on the
employees of the three founding companies, according to a
screenshot from the new website, echoing company officials' earlier
testimony. The site says that "in time, we intend to share our
innovations and solutions to help others."
In its suit, UnitedHealth's Optum health-services unit has
argued that the venture is a potential rival, and officials from
the venture have said they aren't competing with Optum.
The website reiterates that Haven isn't meant to generate
profits and will "reinvest any surplus back into our work."
The company says it will focus on priorities including improved
access to primary care, simplifying insurance coverage and making
prescription drugs more affordable -- all issues that were
previously highlighted in court testimony. In a Q&A on the
site, in answer to a question about whether Haven will look to
replace patients' existing doctors and insurance companies, the
company says it is "interested in working with clinicians and
insurance companies to improve the overall health care system."
Write to Anna Wilde Mathews at anna.mathews@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 06, 2019 16:26 ET (21:26 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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