Amazon.com Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. they were established three years ago to unite and transform health care. Instead, they struggled to solve even fundamental challenges, such as understanding what some types of care really cost.
Haven, the joint venture they created together in 2018 to use technology and find new ways to reduce the costs of their combined 1.5 million employees, will complete operations next month. The project cost the three companies about $ 100 million, according to people familiar with their budget.
From its inception, Haven faced challenges in obtaining data, staff turnover, fuzzy goals, and unexpected competition, according to current and former Haven employees and executives and associated companies. These factors condemned the collaboration from the very beginning, those people said.
Data was a central challenge. Haven struggled to aggregate and analyze information about health care costs for employees at the three companies. Concerns about partner data and insurers ’resilience hampered Haven’s efforts to determine how much companies paid for health care and why, according to people.
Haven is not the first company to struggle with a lack of transparency in healthcare costs and data, an issue that has long complicated government reform efforts and technology solutions. A new rule from the Trump administration, in effect this year, assumes it will force greater disclosure of negotiated rates between hospitals and insurers.