Amazon (NSDQ:AMZN), Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase announced today that they are ending their joint healthcare venture.
The venture, launched in 2018 and known as “Haven,” aimed to bring the companies’ scale and complementary expertise to a long-term project which initially focused on technology solutions to help provide their U.S. employees and families with “high-quality and transparent healthcare at a reasonable cost,” according to a press release at the time.
Following the announcement of the joint venture in January 2018, shares in major health insurers UnitedHealth and Anthem fell as investors pondered the potential disruption that the new venture might bring to the market. In the end, though, the three companies appear to be mostly moving on.
“In the past three years, Haven explored a wide range of healthcare solutions, as well as piloted new ways to make primary care easier to access, insurance benefits simpler to understand and easier to use, and prescription drugs more affordable,” the joint venture stated in a news release. “Moving forward, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. will leverage these insights and continue to collaborate informally to design programs tailored to address the specific needs of their own employee populations. Haven will end its independent operations at the end of February 2021.”
CNBC initially reported the news this afternoon, revealing that Haven began informing its employees today that the shutdown is coming at the end of next month.
Additionally, CNBC reported that many of the 57 employees at the Boston-based firm are expected to be placed at one of the three companies as they individually continue their efforts. The report also cited undisclosed sources confirming that each of the three founding companies performed their own projects separately, eliminating the necessity for the joint venture.
