Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Medicine

Amazon's Joint Health-Care Venture Finally Has a Name: Haven (cnbc.com) 46

"Haven" is the new name of the joint health-care venture between Amazon, JPMorgan, and Berkshire Hathaway. The CEOs of the three companies last January announced they were teaming up to tackle rising health-care costs. They formed a nonprofit company and named renowned surgeon, author and speaker Dr. Atul Gawande as CEO in June. CNBC reports: Prior to the big reveal, many industry insiders referred to the venture as "ABC" or "ABJ." The company said the name choice of "Haven" lines up with its mission to be a "partner" to care providers and to focus on the health-care needs of the 1.2 million Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and J.P Morgan workers. Since his appointment, Gawande has been meeting with employees at these three companies to understand their health-care experiences. In addition to its new brand, the company also unveiled a website with more details about the venture, including a number of areas of focus. These include: Improving the process of navigating the complex health-care system, and accessing affordable treatments and prescription drugs.

Haven also said on its website that it's interested in working with clinicians and insurance companies to improve the overall health-care system, suggesting the venture wants to work with existing players such as insurers, providers and pharmacy benefit managers rather than uprooting them. The website also includes a letter where Gawande describes Haven's role as being "an advocate for the patient and an ally to anyone -- clinicians, industry leaders, innovators, policymakers, and others -- who makes patient care and costs better."

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Amazon's Joint Health-Care Venture Finally Has a Name: Haven

Comments Filter:
  • Haven for what?
    Unpaid taxes?
    Hoarded personal and medical data?

  • Unless you own shares of Berkshire, or have signed up for "Haven Prime" your ambulance will take more than 2 days to take you to a hospital, and no gurney, they'll just toss you onto the steps, /s

    With backers like that, why not just buy some Health insurance companies?

  • ... it sounds like like something out a sci-fi futuristic dystopian book where one company owns everything and everybody worships this one company, and eventually, the company goes from selling things into "health care"...
    • Specifically I think 'haven' is the name of the place where the people who never come out of the euthenic pods supposedly go to live happily.
    • Coming from those three particular companies, that name inspires confidence. They might not know anything about healthcare, but I'm sure they all employ top experts on safe havens.

      • Until such time as healthcare stops being a business, they know more than enough about it. It is really simple, too:

        1) Provide the lowest possible quality and keep "driving the costs down"
        2) Ensure that every punter is paying the highest possible price they can bear
        3) Profit

        No bullet point with question marks involved.

    • ... it sounds like like something out a sci-fi futuristic dystopian book...

      Or a dystopian chapter out of a history book - we could be witnessing the birth of a modern (per)version of zaibatsu, sneaking in the back door via workplace healthcare...

  • I hope this isn't a requirement.

  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Wednesday March 06, 2019 @10:28PM (#58229282)
    and we'll finally have single payer via Medicare for All. Seriously, not everything deserves a market solution. Paying for Healthcare is one of those things that doesn't work at a small scale. You just end up fighting with insurance companies for needed care and paying insane prices for meds.
    • The "great" thing about our current healthcare system is it's _so_ dysfunctional that pretty much _anything_ else would be an improvement. It's hard to imagine even the very worst implementation of National Healthcare being worse than what we have now. That sorry fact gives us lots of room to experiment and innovate.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        The healthcare system is dysfunctional because it's the worst of both the private sector and the public sector. Untangle the two and things may get better, especially if people also start taking responsibility for their own health.

    • Yeah, as long any of the following holds, true:

      1) The company running the scheme is a profit-seeking entity.
      2) The company is publicly traded.
      3) The company has a board of directors that benefits from decisions that draw profit. ...this won't be a real fix. Any of those things will rapidly cause any good will towards the welfare of human beings in the system to break down - as the need to draw profit shapes every decision little bits at a time.

      Soon, all the lip service will be there ("At [company name], we

    • Two things:

      1) Our Medicare system is almost bankrupt.

      2) Lots of people trust the free market more than The Government. It's weird how people seem to attribute "evilness" to the "greed" of corporations, and complain about monopolies... How is single-payer healthcare run by the Government not a monopoly? How is it that people miss or willfully ignore the "greed" of politicians who wish to usurp this power and money (and, ultimately, the right to decide what you should do with your body)? Do you *really* want

  • Haven also said on its website that it's interested in working with clinicians and insurance companies to improve the overall health-care system, suggesting the venture wants to work with existing players such as insurers, providers and pharmacy benefit managers rather than uprooting them.

    It sounds like the old quip about XML can be paraphrased to apply here:

    "A set of healthcare middlemen is like violence -- If it doesn't solve your problems, you are not using enough of it."

  • With the United States paying the highest healthcare rates in the world for the same or worse coverage than other 1st world countries, it seems fairly obvious that there is a large amount of waste that can be tidied up by streamlining things. Streamlining is Amazon's wheel house. Insurance is one of Berkshire Hathoway's primary businesses. Financing core services is what JP Morgan does.

    These three companies have the right experience, leverage and knowledge to be able to make a large dent in this marke

    • by Krishnoid ( 984597 ) on Thursday March 07, 2019 @01:23AM (#58229620) Journal

      I don't know why anyone would even need to 'fix' it, considering there are multiple developed nations with (well-functioning?) healthcare systems that could probably just be dropped in as templates. At least one of them should have gotten it mostly right by now.

      • by h4x0t ( 1245872 )
        Yeah... but lobbying prevents a drop in legislative solution. This is a big dollar solution to a big dollar problem. I wish them luck, and I hope they are rapidly made obsolete by a groundswell of common sense that percolates up through the legislature.
  • At least check out Atul Gawande's books [atulgawande.com], and in particular the summary about the use of checklists in medical care [newyorker.com]. I recall one of the main SQLite developers saying he bought a copy of "The Checklist Manifesto" for all of his subordinates.

    • by shilly ( 142940 )

      I recommend the bell curve article, also. It's an interesting appointment, that's for sure.

  • That is the biggest problem in the U.S. by far. We are in desperate need of more doctors and nurses as more and more people seek out health care services. Unfortunately many people don't understand that if you take an overwhelmed system and throw in more customers (demand) in to the system it gets even worse. Costs go up. Prime the pump with more workers first. States could incentivize professional healthcare workers. Don't do it at the federal level, it's too inefficient and corrupt.

    • Yup, supply and demand is at the heart of any market, and our healthcare policy has been focused on increasing demand and restricting supply. Increasing demand through subsidies and insurance, and decreasing supply to maximize quality.

      You cannot maximize quantity and quality, they are inversely related. You can't increase demand without increasing supply if you want stable costs.

      Major politicians have recently stated that they will provide high-quality care for everyone. This is not possible.

  • Be sure to get Haven Prime so you don't have to pay an extra fee per IV line.

Your password is pitifully obvious.

Working...