Efforts Continue Around Reshaping US Healthcare
This morning Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase announced plans to develop a new approach to employee healthcare benefits. Their goal is to cut healthcare costs and improve services for employees and their families, a common goal for all of us. Specifically this effort is focused on “technology solutions that will provide employees and families with simplified, high-quality and transparent healthcare at a reasonable cost.”
This announcement received a lot of press but at this point no details have been shared. At Mercer, we applaud all efforts to improve the cost and quality of care in our US healthcare system -- as businesses in America provide coverage to 178 million Americans. We continue to work with our employer clients to drive innovation throughout the health system. As people live longer and the workforce evolves, addressing gaps in the US healthcare system will be critical not just for employees and their families, but for all healthcare consumers.
Of course, the focus on technology solutions continues to interest all of us. Amazon and others continue to explore approaches that improve the cost and quality of healthcare by leveraging technology in the consumer and provider space. We look forward to partnering with both current and new entities to help pioneer new ways to improve health. We’ve also been out in front in forming collectives that facilitate group purchasing of services – and more recently, an initiative that offers employers in a given healthcare market a way to collectively address quality issues with local providers.
It goes without saying that we will be watching this and other new ventures closely and keeping you up to date on developments.