Amazon.com Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. started three years ago to join and transform healthcare. Instead, they struggled to solve even fundamental challenges, such as understanding what some types of care really cost.
Haven, the joint venture they co-founded in 2018 to leverage technology and find new ways to lower costs for their combined 1.5 million employees, will close operations next month. The project cost the three companies about $ 100 million together, people familiar with the budget said.
From the outset, Haven faced challenges in data acquisition, employee turnover, vague goals and unexpected competition, according to current and former employees and executives at Haven and its partner companies. Those factors doomed the partnership from the start, those people said.
Data was a central challenge. Haven struggled to collect and analyze information about health care costs for the employees of the three companies. Data objections from the partners and resistance from insurers hampered Haven’s efforts to determine how much the companies paid for medical care and why, the people said.
Haven is not the first company to grapple with the lack of transparency in health care costs and data, a problem that has long complicated government reform efforts and technology solutions. A new Trump administration rule, in effect this year, should enforce more disclosure of the rates negotiated between hospitals and insurers.