June 20, 2018
Dive
Brief:
- Amazon,
Berkshire Hathaway and J.P. Morgan named Atul Gawande as
CEO of their partnership focused on disrupting U.S. employee healthcare.
Gawande will join the firm July 9.
- The
yet-to-be-named business venture will be headquartered in Boston.
- “I have devoted my public health
career to building scalable solutions for better healthcare delivery that
are saving lives, reducing suffering, and eliminating wasteful spending
both in the US and across the world," Gawande said in a
statement. "This work will take time but must be done. The
system is broken, and better is possible.”
Dive
Insight:
The
New Yorker staff writer and Harvard Medical School surgery professor is an
unconventional choice to lead the venture between Amazon, Berkshire
Hathaway and J.P. Morgan announced in January.
Few
details were given at the time and little have been released on the
independent, nonprofit company created to address healthcare need of their U.S.
employees.
J.P.
Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon in his annual letter to
shareholders in April shared some insights. Dimon said the company will work on
aligning incentives throughout the industry as well as promote employees
education on healthcare options and choice. "We will be using top
management, big data, virtual technology, better customer engagement and the
improved creation of customer choice," he wrote.
Despite
much hype about the trio's potential for disruption, Leerink analyst David
Larsen said incumbents have years to feel the pain.
"The
alliance is in the early stages and will take years to develop solutions that
potentially impact existing players like PBMs, insurers, and providers,"
he wrote in an investor note.
Gawande
is a noted healthcare thought leader, author and surgeon. He currently
practices general and endocrine surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital and is
a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard
Medical School.
He
has also written four New York Times bestsellers, including Being
Mortal, and is a founder of Ariadne Labs, a joint effort between
Harvard and Brigham and Women's that focuses on medical errors and health
system effectiveness.
Geisinger
CEO David Feinberg was rumored to be among the top picks to run the
organization earlier this month. However, Feinberg told CNBC that he is
"100% committed to Geisinger."
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