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Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan End Health-Care Venture Haven

cnbc.com

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Re: Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan End Health-Care Venture Haven

#11

Post by Technically »

ProAm wrote: post #9
DIVx0 wrote: post #2

I'd be curious to know some more details. The article says turnover was a problem at all levels, but why? I am in this same industry and I'm really interested to learn what a massively well connected and funded startup discovered that made it better to toss in the towel.

I dont think they are throwing in the towel, I think they are all going about it on their own to capture more of the low hanging profit? > One key issue facing Haven was that while the firm came up with ideas, each of the three founding companies executed their own projects separately with their own employees, obviating the need for the joint venture to begin with, according to the people, who declined to be identifi…

Maybe we've reached the point where startups are just really expensive spikes.

Re: Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan End Health-Care Venture Haven

#12

Post by rmrfstar »

DIVx0 wrote: post #2

I'd be curious to know some more details. The article says turnover was a problem at all levels, but why? I am in this same industry and I'm really interested to learn what a massively well connected and funded startup discovered that made it better to toss in the towel.

This is probably an indicator that outside counsel is saying "antitrust might be a real thing again, why don't you lower your profile a smidge." Nothing says "cartel" louder than a "joint venture" comprised of 3 companies with $2.5 trillion in market capitalization.

Re: Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan End Health-Care Venture Haven

#13

Post by superfrank »

For anyone wanting a short summary, these two excerpts pretty much summarize the entire situation:

> One key issue facing Haven was that each of the three founding companies executed their own projects separately with their own employees, obviating the need for the joint venture to begin with

> Many of the Boston-based firm’s 57 workers are expected to be placed at Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway or JPMorgan Chase as the firms each individually push forward in their efforts, and the three companies are still expected to collaborate informally on health-care projects

Seems like a non-story, IMO

Re: Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan End Health-Care Venture Haven

#14

Post by phobosanomaly »

supertrope wrote: post #7
djohnston wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Admittedtly without evidence, I would speculate that they ran up against institutional players who had better lobbying power for this industry. There is no technical limitation to explain why our healthcare system sucks, it's some crazy combination of inefficient policies, beaurocracies, and established parties who benefit from the preceding two. But agreed, would love to see more.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair There's no single institution or person holding us back. Real life isn't a movie with a villain who can be defeated and then we live happily ever after. There's no magic HealthBot 3000 technology that will deliver a breakthrough in curing disease and injury, and/or disrupt current business mod…

Quick background on the great Walt Kelly quote, with images of the comic strip in which it was used.

https://library.osu.edu/site/40stories/2020/01/05/we-have-me...

Re: Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan End Health-Care Venture Haven

#15

Post by m16ghost »

Healthcare in the United States is complicated with lots of different players. The article seems to hint at a key issue they faced:

>But insiders claim that it will allow the founding companies to implement ideas from the project on their own, tailoring them to the specific needs of their employees, who are mostly concentrated in different cities.

Medical services is mostly a localized service, so each city is its own individual market. As large as Amazon, JPMorgan, and Berkshire are, their employees are spread out geographically, and even in their headquarter cities, they do not represent a significant number of people negotiating for medical services. Without a way to control the actual medical service supply (i.e. doctors and hospitals), their programs will have to negotiate at market rates, meaning there really is no way to achieve significant savings.

Amazon released their pill pack service, which helps because drugs can be shipped across the country, so there are efficiencies to be gained there. However, drug costs are still a smaller percentage of overall costs [0], albeit growing.

[0]https://www.ama-assn.org/about/research/trends-health-care-s...

Re: Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan End Health-Care Venture Haven

#16

Post by _lazlo »

supertrope wrote: post #7
djohnston wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Admittedtly without evidence, I would speculate that they ran up against institutional players who had better lobbying power for this industry. There is no technical limitation to explain why our healthcare system sucks, it's some crazy combination of inefficient policies, beaurocracies, and established parties who benefit from the preceding two. But agreed, would love to see more.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair There's no single institution or person holding us back. Real life isn't a movie with a villain who can be defeated and then we live happily ever after. There's no magic HealthBot 3000 technology that will deliver a breakthrough in curing disease and injury, and/or disrupt current business mod…

A good start would be to end the need for medical licensing. It creates an artificially low supply of doctors thus increased costs. Before medical licensing there were more breakthroughs and competition.

Re: Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan End Health-Care Venture Haven

#17

Post by 374733636373384 »

m16ghost wrote: post #15

Healthcare in the United States is complicated with lots of different players. The article seems to hint at a key issue they faced: >But insiders claim that it will allow the founding companies to implement ideas from the project on their own, tailoring them to the specific needs of their employees, who are mostly concentrated in different cities. Medical services is mostly a localized service, so each city is its ow…

I wonder what the costs/benefits of tele-medicine are like right now. It seems like for certain services like gp visits you could just have a location that scans people to create high detail models for a remote doctor to review during a live call while locally situated support staff handle things like collecting blood, fluids, etc. and feeling for lumps. Probably not ideal for a small practice but if you have a pool of 100,000 employees it seems plausible that you could realize some savings.

Re: Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan End Health-Care Venture Haven

#18

Post by r00fus »

_lazlo wrote: post #16
supertrope wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair There's no single institution or person holding us back. Real life isn't a movie with a villain who can be defeated and then we live happily ever after. There's no magic HealthBot 3000 technology that will deliver a breakthrough in curing disease and injury, and/or disrupt current business mod…

A good start would be to end the need for medical licensing. It creates an artificially low supply of doctors thus increased costs. Before medical licensing there were more breakthroughs and competition.

How would you know if your doctor wasn’t a fraud?

Re: Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan End Health-Care Venture Haven

#19

Post by macjohnmcc »

m16ghost wrote: post #15

Healthcare in the United States is complicated with lots of different players. The article seems to hint at a key issue they faced: >But insiders claim that it will allow the founding companies to implement ideas from the project on their own, tailoring them to the specific needs of their employees, who are mostly concentrated in different cities. Medical services is mostly a localized service, so each city is its ow…

I priced Amazon's prescription drug service and it estimated I would be paying my co-pay on each of the drugs. Sounds good if you usually go to CVS but at Walmart I get the four prescriptions I get for $26-30.

Re: Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan End Health-Care Venture Haven

#20

Post by mchusma »

I keep hoping that someone makes a run at the most obvious health care need: a consumer centric medical record that you control with automated diagnosis engine.

Diagnosis is fundamentally an information problem, so should be zero marginal cost. Generic drugs have near zero marginal costs, so the idea that most healthcare needs to be expensive is incorrect from first principles.

I think if this is impossible in the US due to regulations, surely there are some countries that would allow it?

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