Big companies have been trying to get a handle on health-care costs for decades, with limitedsuccess. A new partnership between Amazon.com Inc., JPMorgan Chase &Co.and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has the potential to be one ofthe most ambitious employer efforts to date to control healthexpenses.

Here are five takeaways:

Market muscle

There’s buying power in numbers. By combining three of thebiggest companies in the world, with more than a million employeesin total, the new venture will be able to directly negotiate betterdeals with sellers of prescription drugs, lab tests, and medicaldevices. The combined economic might could also give the companiesmore power over coverage decisions.

Better technology

Ever try comparison shopping for prescription drugs or elective surgery online?It’s hard to do, in large part because existing players have littleincentive to reveal their true prices. By cutting through theclutter, the companies could allow their employees to shop fordrugs, lab tests and other basic services within their health plan,with much the same ease as shopping for electronics or groceriesonline.

Middlemen beware

Prices for prescription drugs, which move through a complexchain of pharmacy-benefit managers and wholesalers before reachingpatients, are especially hard to understand. Even big employersoften have to travel to secure rooms in the offices ofpharmacy-benefit managers to learn the secret discounts they aregetting on brand-name medications. The new joint venture could makepricing information more accessible--and drive down profit marginsfor drug-plan managers such as Express Scripts HoldingCo. and CVS Health Corp., and wholesalersincluding AmerisourceBergen Corp. and McKessonCorp.

Test & release

Amazon.com has a habit of trying new initiatives in-house andthen unleashing them on the wider world. The joint venture isinternally focused on the three companies now -- but if the modelsucceeds it could expand greatly in the future, allowing othercompanies to buy into the new model, or set up competingprograms.

Others have tried

These companies aren’t the first to try to ‘disrupt’ healthcare. The industry, at 18 percent of the U.S. economy, is a fattarget, but the power of entrenched players and the complexity ofthe system makes it difficult to transform. Just two years ago, theHealth Transformation Alliance launched with muchfanfare, promising to “fix our broken healthcare system.”That group -- with members including International BusinessMachines Corp. and American Express Co. -- ultimately partneredwith existing industry players including CVS and UnitedHealthGroup Inc.’s OptumRx.

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