DISRUPT - Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorganChase Partner for Healthcare

Improving Employee Satisfaction and Reducing Overall Costs

Increasing Satisfaction, Lowering Cost

Three large American employers announced yesterday they will partner and develop ways to deliver healthcare that provides greater satisfaction for their employees and reduces their overall cost. 

These three companies intend to bring scale, complementary expertise and an ecosystem that is free from profit-making or incentives that seem to be present constraints. These three organizations will create an ecosystem that has more than 1.1M employees (Amazon 542K, Berkshire Hathaway 368K, JPMorgan 234K). To put this in context, Walmart has 1.4M employees in the US and Google has 62K.

The joint press release noted that tackling the enormous challenges of healthcare and harnessing its full benefits are among the greatest issues facing society today. By bringing three of the world’s leading organizations into this new and innovative construct, they hope to bring a fresh approach to these critical matters.

“The ballooning costs of healthcare act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy. Our group does not come to this problem with answers. But we also do not accept it as inevitable.” said Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO, Warren Buffett.

“The healthcare system is complex, and we enter into this challenge open-eyed about the degree of difficulty. Success is going to require talented experts, a beginner’s mind, and a long-term orientation,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO.

“The three of our companies have extraordinary resources, and our goal is to create solutions that benefit our U.S. employees, their families and, potentially, all Americans,” said JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon. 

While this effort is in its early planning stages, the formation of the company will be jointly spearheaded by Todd Combs, an investment officer of Berkshire Hathaway; Marvelle Sullivan Berchtold, a Managing Director of JPMorgan Chase; and Beth Galetti, a Senior Vice President at Amazon. The release says that the longer-term management team, headquarters location and key operational details will be communicated in due course.

That this alliance will produce disruption in the healthcare sector cannot be disputed. That the partners hope to construct a new healthcare ecosystem using their scale and expertise without a need for profit is being watched with great concern by those who profit in this sector. 

Amazon Marketplace has already claimed a place in healthcare that is worrying those involved in Patient Benefit Management (PBM) and those involved in supplying pharmaceuticals like Walgreens and Walmart.

Can these partners create a win for themselves and then for other large employers is the question on the mind of nearly everyone. In December, InfoStream published an article on the CVS acquisition of Aetna which illuminated disruption in healthcare for humans.  Dental care and veterinary  healthcare are other areas that are ripe for aggregation and disruption.

Notice that Jeff Bezos, used the term 'a beginners mind' in his quotation. The process of rethinking a market when everyone else is clearly 'doing the same thing and expecting a different result' requires this approach. When consumer satisfaction increases, transparency is delivered and healthcare costs decrease a win will be certain.  

Here are links showing disruption has been aimed on healthcare for sometime:

2018Jan30 Bloomberg - Video on this Disruption 

2017Oct20 Forbes - Amazon to Disrupt Pharma

2017Oct05 Huron - Addressing Healthcare on Amazon 

2017Jul24 CNBC - Amazon Showing interest in Healthcare 

2017Jun10 Modern Healthcare - Amazon poised to deliver disruption in medical supply industry 

2016Feb25 Slideshare - Healthcare Disrupted: Next Generation Business Models and Strategies for Life Sciences 

INNOVATE - Hightech Health Device Intervenes in Falls

For Seniors, a fall can be devastating, a hallmark event that often precedes death

One of the most useful intervention technologies at CES 2108 was the Hip'Air belt.

This story has a personal connection for one InfoStream contributor who, in March of 2012, lost a father who fell and broke his hip nine months earlier. That this injury could unleash a sequence of health issues that would ultimately kill an otherwise healthy mobile man in less than a year was troubling.

Hip'Air is a lightweight belt that incorporates an airbag to protect a person's hips and pelvis in the event of a fall. This device is similar to the protection vests and neck wear used to protect riders and other athletes. Because a lanyard or similar initiator can't be used, the technology uses accelerometers to detect precursors of a fall  developed from fall research.

Within the first 280 milliseconds of a fall profile detection, the airbag deploys from the belt and directs energy away from the hip and pelvis. This shielding reduces the risk of injury and immobility of a person falling. Within 30 seconds the air shield deflates, allowing the person free mobility. 


The Hip'Air belt is fully automatic, rechargeable (15 day battery) and ships with an extra washable mesh cover. Replacement energizer gas cartridges are also available. 

Clipping the belt fastener together automatically turns the system on and lights a small green led indicator. Low battery signal includes an audible signal and lights a small red led indicator.  

The impact of fall injuries are often very severe. Surgery, protracted  recovery periods, infection, permanent loss of mobility, the end of independent living and even death are possible outcomes. The cost of fall injuries to healthcare systems is very high especially in seniors over 65. In this particular cohort, falls are a 'hallmark' event meaning a predictor of other serious medical conditions or even death which can occur within twelve months of a hip or pelvis fracture.

The Hip'Air device is expected to make this type of injury 94% preventable. Preventing these injuries would have an immediate impact on the wellbeing and health of seniors as well as on the billions of dollars spent in the healthcare system resulting from falls. 

A Dutch company Wolk is also testing a similar device that it hopes to introduce to the European market during 2018. 

The prices for this device are expected to range between US$500 to US$800 for the belt and between US$90 to US$120 for the energizer gas cartridges.

RESEARCH - Pet Ownership Saves Billions in Health Care

Want to be healthy? Eat your fruits and vegetables, get a good night's sleep, regular exercise and add a critter to your life. Pet ownership pays – and recent findings by the Human Animal Bond Research Initiative (HABRI,) says impressive dividends in the United States amounts to a whopping $11.7 billion in health-care savings annually.

“There was abundant research to show pets have a positive effect on our health, but this is the first time anyone has looked at the impact on the U.S. health-care system,” Terry Clower, study co-author and professor of public policy at George Mason University’s School of Policy where the research was done tells PetLynx. “We did not have specific data on impacts on Canadians ... but (the study) suggests a common trend in Western cultures that I would expect to apply to Canadians.”

Fewer visits to the doctor by pet owners, versus non-pet owners, leads to health-care savings. According to the study, 132.8 million U.S. pet owners visit a doctor 0.6 times less than the average non-pet owners and with the average physician visit costing $139, that means pet owners essentially accrue savings in terms of health dollars.

Although the study was done in the U.S., findings suggest pet owners world-wide reap similar benefits.

In Germany, for instance, pet owners visited a doctor's office 11 times a year compared to non-pet owners who went 12.9 times annually. In Australia, people with a pet at home checked in with the doctor 4.9 times a year compared with pet-free folks who went 5.6 times in the same period.

“Thinking about things that people should do to maintain their health, ‘get a pet’ belongs on that list,” said HABRI executive director Steven Feldman. “Pet ownership provides another way for people to stay healthy and save money.”

Those who take regular walks with their pooch - a group totalling more than 20 million people - boast reduced incidences of obesity thus saving $419 million in related health-care costs.

Happy to see the dog at the door when you get home? The findings also found health benefits of pet ownership go beyond good-for-the-body and offer physiological pay-offs, too, often boosting mental health by offering everything from a reprieve from daily stress and comfort in tough times, like when grieving a loss.

And the health benefits are not promoted only by pooches. “The estimates of impacts of pet ownership on physician visits is not specific to dogs. This includes any pet,” Clower told PetLynx. “There have been separate studies that have found health benefits to dogs, cats, fish and even exotic pets.”

About half of Canadian households, according to the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council of Canada, own some kind of pet.

Log onto www.habri.org to view the full report.

By Nadia Moharib

Nadia Moharib is a talented freelance writer in a variety of mediums with over 20 years journalism experience.

May is the Puuurfect Month to Promote Preventive Healthcare for Cats

Care for Cats declares May as the ‘purrfect’ month to raise awareness about the most popular pet – the cat. Their campaign message this year focuses on preventive healthcare and wellness for cats. Studies have shown there has been a decrease in the number of visits to veterinarians by cat owners, and, at the same time, the overall health of cat population has declined.

According to Dr. Liz O’Brien, a board-certified feline practitioner from Hamilton, Ontario, pet caregivers need to know that cats, just like dogs, need yearly preventive healthcare.

O’Brien, who is also the spokesperson for Care for Cats, points out that there is a pervasive “Myth of the Indoor Cat” which even the best intentioned and caring pet owners can fall for.

“It is a myth which continues to this day, that because a person has their cat indoors, they do not need to worry about health concerns or preventive health care because their cats are safe at their caregiver’s side,” says Dr. O’Brien.

Dr. O’Brien also notes that the statistics show 58 per cent of people who know their cat's needs for professional care still do not bring the cat to the vet because of difficulty getting the cat there and once there, they may have a poor experience.

Veterinarians are trying to help these clients now by educating them regarding proper use of comfortable cat carriers for transport, and training to transport safely with minimal stress. Veterinarians increasingly are respecting the adage “cats are not small dogs” in the way their clinics are designed and in how their cat care is implemented to help make cat's visits less stressful.

Throughout the month of May, and for the rest of the year, a number of resources will be available for download through www.careforcats.ca to help deliver its unified message throughout the community.

Other events planned for 2012 include:

• Sept. 23 – Oct. 2 — National Cat ID Week focusing on permanent identification, licensing and registration
• December — Hoping for Fur-ever homes adopt-a-thon

“We know that being part of the Care for Cats initiative the changes we want to see happen will not occur overnight,” says Dr. O’Brien. “However, with the support we have received within a short period of time from veterinarians, municipal animal services, animal welfare and the pet industry, I am more than hopeful that we will see a positive change in the near future.”

The Canadian Veterinary Medical Association is working with Care for Cats in their vision to increase the value of owned, homeless and feral cats in Canadian communities, in addition to increasing the level in wellness by promoting regular vet visits.

For more information:

Dr. Liz O’Brien                             Tanya Frye
Volunteer Chair, Care for Cats        Communications, CVMA
drliz@careforcats.ca                     tfrye@cvma-acmv.org