Haven is partnering with two national health insurers to launch the first salvo in its attempt to disrupt the healthcare system.
The joint venture between Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway will offer health plans to 30,000 JPMorgan workers in Ohio and Arizona for 2020 that are backed by Cigna and CVS Health's Aetna, Bloomberg reported. Amazon will also offer coverage to workers in Connecticut, North Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin that it designed in collaboration with Haven and unspecified payers.
The new plans for JPMorgan workers will not have deductibles and will include a wellness plan that will offer monthly financial rewards for meeting certain fitness or health goals, Bloomberg reported. A typical copay ranges from between $15 to $110, though hospitalizations and other more intensive services have higher price tags.
The banking firm intends to track whether its employees find the plan to be transparent, according to the report.
Just what the three corporate giants had planned for their healthcare team up has been watched closely by the industry since the venture was first announced in January 2018. Since then, the new company snagged famed surgeon and author Atul Gawande as its CEO and formally branded as Haven in March.
Amazon's reach and brand name put it in a strong position to lead substantial change in the industry. Hospital executives polled last year bought into the Haven hype, though surveys suggest consumers are more skeptical.
Court documents unsealed earlier this year revealed that an early focus for the joint venture would be insurance complexity along with ways to assist workers in navigating and understanding their benefits. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has in the past called out the healthcare industry for its opacity.
Dimon said in June 2018 that existing JPMorgan health partners, likely payers, were "pissed off" about the partnership with Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway, so that two national insurers are now on board with Haven's work is particularly notable.
“Quite a bit of them were pissed off. Which kind of pissed me off. They’re going to tell me I can’t do a better job for my employees? Isn’t that what they’re supposed to help me do anyway?” he said at a conference last year.
What's next for Haven remains to be seen, though Dimon has flagged telemedicine and studying the costs related to end-of-life care as potential goals.