Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase hire Monitor Deloitte
The healthcare cost-cutting venture launched by the three companies in January of this year has hired Deloitte Monitor for strategic guidance. The consultancy will specifically address how to cut healthcare costs and create better outcomes for chronically ill workers.
Earlier this year, Amazon announced that it had entered into a healthcare venture with conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway and bank JP Morgan. The venture is reportedly concerned with lowering healthcare costs for the three companies’ million-plus employees, but it is probable that Amazon and co. will look to shake up the healthcare sector to an even wider degree.
Analysts believe that the firm has the right competencies to be successful in its disruption of the healthcare industry – digital innovation, customer experience, data and analytics. The firm has been successful in its various expansions, from books to pretty much all retail categories, while developing leading competencies in artificial intelligence and cloud computing. There are also rumors that Amazon will be moving into the banking space in the near future.
Amazon has already started making Prime Now drug deliveries in Japan. In the US, the e-retailer is already selling medical supplies and equipment, as well as restricted-access products to licensed health organizations. The firm is also looking to encroach on mail-order pharmacies, having obtained wholesale distribution approval from a dozen state pharmaceutical boards. Meanwhile, Whole Foods offers a base for possible local pick-up pharmacies.
The firm’s Alexa AI-powered devices offer the possible basis for telemedicine health services. Machine learning Echo devices also hold the promise of being turned into home diagnostic tools: the Mayo Clinic, for example, has already integrated Alexa’s ability to provide first-aid information and voice-driven self-care instructions.
Analysts at LEK Consulting expect Amazon to use the venture agreement as a sandbox to test further solutions before moving aggressively into the healthcare space – including the areas of medical supplies, retail pharmacy, telemedicine, and AI diagnostics.
Now, the tripartite healthcare venture has hired Monitor Deloitte – the multinational strategy consulting practice of Deloitte Consulting. Founded in 1983 by six entrepreneurs with ties to the Harvard Business School, including noted business academic Michael Porter, the Boston-based strategy firm Monitor Group was purchased in 2013 by Deloitte following a downturn in business due to the financial crisis.
Monitor Deloitte will be tasked with developing a strategy for lowering healthcare costs by improving care of chronically ill patients, according to life science magazine STAT. As part of the healthcare venture’s aim to lower healthcare costs for their 1.2 million combined employees, Deloitte Monitor will strategize how to make it easier and cheaper for chronically ill workers to access care.
Tackling the problem effectively is an important issue, since 75% of health care costs are due to chronic conditions, according to the US Centers for Disease Control.
As part of its work, the consultancy will look to depress costs by identifying interventions likely to be taken up by chronically ill workers, while evaluating and recommending the most suitable technology solutions.
Meanwhile, the health venture partnership between Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JP Morgan will continue to strategize how to tackle healthcare waste in three broad areas for its employee base: administrative costs, high prices, and improper healthcare usage.
The venture’s current CEO is Dr Atul Gawande, a surgeon at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who received national attention for an article he wrote in The New Yorker about healthcare costs. Recently, former Comcast executive Jack Stoddard was hired as the venture’s Chief Operating Officer. Stoddard previously held roles at Optum (a UnitedHealth subsidiary) and Accolade, a consumer healthcare engagement firm.
