Haven – the healthcare joint venture of Amazon, Berkshire and JPMorgan – is closing

“Haven will shut down in late February,” said Haven spokesman Brooke Thurston in an email to CNN Business. The news was first released by CNBC.

The venture was created in 2018 with the goal of helping provide better health and insurance services at a lower cost to workers and families at these three leading American companies – and potentially also to other American companies.

But Haven had struggled to make inroads beyond his three partners since its inception. Haven CEO Atul Gawande stepped down last May and Chief Operating Officer Jack Stoddard also left the company in 2019 after just a few months in office.
Spokesmen for JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Amazon (AMZN) also confirmed to CNN Business that Haven was closing. Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) was not immediately available for comment.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon wrote in an employee email that was shared with CNN Business: “Haven worked best as an incubator for ideas, a place to pilot, test and learn – and a way to share the best practices in our companies. Our learnings were invaluable. “

Thurston told CNN Business that “moving forward, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase & Co. will continue to collaborate informally to design programs tailored to meet the specific needs of our individual employee locations and populations.”

She added that “the Haven team has made good progress in exploring a wide range of health solutions, as well as testing new ways to make primary care easier to access, insurance benefits easier to understand and use and medicines more accessible.”

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In the future, the three companies are expected to continue to focus on increasing health care offerings for their own employees, especially as the Covid-19 vaccine becomes available to a broader group of Americans.

In his e-mail to employees, Dimon said “we will take advantage of the insights we gained through our joint venture and build on them”. He added that there would be no changes to the bank employee benefit programs and that Haven would work with Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway to find new jobs for Haven employees.

Meanwhile, Amazon is stepping up its own healthcare efforts. The company already owns the PillPack online pharmacy and recently launched plans to send prescriptions to Prime members.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway makes big bets on drug stocks

Berkshire Hathaway, led by billionaire Warren Buffett, recently sought bargains in the healthcare industry.

Berkshire disclosed in November that it bought shares in vaccine developer Covid-19 and leader of Big Pharma Pfizer (PFE) in the third quarter. Buffett’s company also invested in AbbVie (ABBV), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) and Merck (MRK).

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