Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase have named the independent health care organisation they have founded – Haven.
The three founding companies first announced plans in January 2018 to create an alternative to traditional insurance-led US health care.
The development is seen as a potential major disruption of the US insurance market as in the words of Haven’s chief executive Atul Gawande it wants to “change the way people experience health care so that it is simpler, better, and lower cost”.
Haven’s website argues that even with insurance, many Americans do not have the basics — because it says medical treatment and prescription drug costs are high, the system is hard to navigate, and patients do not consistently get the right care for their needs.
The organisation says it is pursuing a number of common-sense and innovative approaches to address issues in the US, like making primary care easier to access, insurance benefits simpler to understand and easier to use, and prescription drugs more affordable.
It adds: “We are interested in working with clinicians and insurance companies to improve the overall health care system.”
Haven’s initial focus is the 1.2m employees and families affiliated with Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase across the US and over time the provider said it intends to share its findings.
Gawande became chief executive last July and assembled a leadership team – including Jack Stoddard as chief operating officer, Serkan Kutan as chief technology officer, Dana Safran as head of measurement, and others – to move the organisation’s work forward.
Safran was previously chief performance measurement and improvement officer at health insurance company Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.
The organisation is now recruiting software engineers, data scientists and clinicians, among others. It will be headquartered in Boston with an office in New York.