At Amazon, wheresome employees are already enrolled, the goal is to help employeesbetter understand their health costs and to work better withprimary-care doctors. (Photo: Shutterstock)

(Bloomberg) –JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Amazon.com Inc. havebegun testing the new health-care venture they're developing withWarren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., rolling out some of thenew offerings to employees in a handful of states.

Under the program, called Haven Healthcare, JPMorgan is offering its30,000 workers in Ohio and Arizona two plans for 2020 run by CignaCorp. and Aetna Inc., according to people familiar with the matter,who asked not to be identified discussing non-public information.The group comprises just under 20 percent of the bank'sU.S. workforce.

Related: Amazon launches virtual medical clinic forworkers

Amazon is offering health plans for employees in Connecticut,North Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin that were created by Amazon inconsultation with Haven and insurance providers, said arepresentative for the tech and online retail giant.

The efforts at both companies appear to be early steps in theventure's goal of overhauling health-care benefits to make themmore transparent, better at keeping people healthy and loweringcosts. JPMorgan, Amazon and Berkshire founded Boston-based Haven in2018, but details about the effort have been scant. Headed byphysician and writer Atul Gawande, the venture has been run insecrecy with almost no sign of what it might do.

At JPMorgan, Haven is planning to monitor employees'receptiveness to the new offering and whether they find it moretransparent, one of the people said. At Amazon, where someemployees are already enrolled, the goal is to help employeesbetter understand their health costs and to work better withprimary-care doctors.

Joe Evangelisti, a JPMorgan spokesman, confirmed plans to rollout the program to bank employees in the two states. Arepresentative for Berkshire didn't respond to a request forcomment.

Company discontent

Unlike the existing insurance plan for JPMorgan's U.S.employees, the new Haven programs don't require employees to paydeductibles. They offer perks like earning money each month byfulfilling certain wellness activities such as keeping bloodpressure below a certain target, said one of the people. That moneycan be used to offset doctor visits or the cost of prescriptions.Such benefits and incentives aren't unusual in the corporateworld.

JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon has long railedagainst the U.S. health-care system, saying shortcomings likesoaring costs, bureaucracy, fraud and a lack of transparency aroundthe price of medical procedures are impeding the U.S. economy.

In May, he said a team of about 40 people was analyzing thethree companies' insurance plans, wellness offerings and pharmacybenefit management deals to identify ways to improve health-careoutcomes for its employees. He has said better aligning incentivesand empowering employees to make better choices could help.

Cost transparency

Under Haven plans for the JPMorgan employees, co-pays range from$15 to $110 for most services, according to one of the people. Somemore expensive care, such as a hospitalization, comes with highercharges.

Gawande became well known for a series of articles in the NewYorker magazine exploring why health-care costs variedsignificantly from place to place in the U.S. On Haven's website,he says their work will take time and the organization will "berelentless." The mission is to "deliver simplified, high-quality,and transparent health care at a reasonable cost."

High health-care expenses are a major focus for workers andemployers. Work-based family health-insurance premiums topped arecord $20,000 in a 2019 survey of employers conducted by theKaiser Family Foundation. On average, workers' average annualcontribution was $6,000 for a family plan.

The Haven venture has also raised fears among health insurers,drug makers and other parts of the industry that JPMorgan, Amazonand Berkshire would use their collective power to disruptestablished players.

"This is not meant to be a profit-seeking thing," Dimon said ata conference in May. "It was meant to be a improved health-carething, stronger employees. We hope we'll have something we canshare with the world."

–With assistance from Katherine Chiglinsky, John Tozzi andRobert Langreth.

Read more: 

• Amazon launches HIPAA-compliant Alexa health careskills
• New court docs: Amazon & Co. want to 'reinventwhat insurance looks like'
• Where do benefits brokers fit in Amazon's newhealth care venture?

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