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 Today in Health it, this story is Haven's End. My name is Bill Russell. I'm a former CIO for a 16 hospital system and creator of this week in Health IT a channel dedicated to keeping health IT staff current and engaged. Special thanks for to our sponsor, Sirius Healthcare. They have been a sponsor of this week in Health IT and our mission to develop the next generation of health leaders for the better part of a year.

And we really appreciate their support in developing this content. Here's today's story. This is from the Wall Street Journal, but you can find it everywhere. It is plastered on every major website. A healthcare venture launched with great fanfare by three of the world's most prominent companies, Amazon Inc.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. And JP Morgan Chase and Company, and their chief executives is folding about three years after its founding Haven Health. Sparked by an idea from JP Morgan, chief Executive Jamie Diamond, and supported by Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Berkshire's Warren Buffet sought to transform healthcare and reduce costs for hundreds of thousands of workers at a time, uh, at the three companies by pooling resources and technology.

And, uh, if you remember back then, I mean, it was, uh, a huge fanfare. Pretty fr frantic, uh, expectations in, in a lot of different directions. And, uh, so I decided to break it down based on what the, uh, what the founders were saying. and I was over, I was optimistic, but not overconfident. And that was based on the quotes from the founders.

And here's, let's start with, you know, why was I optimistic? Uh, you know, this has been done, done before. Many of us don't remember this, but you know, this is straight from the Kaiser Permanente website. Kaiser Permanente evolved from industrial healthcare programs for construction shipyard, and steel mill workers.

Honestly, I thought probably not because a different time calls for a different solution. I. The second reason we were optimistic is there are models of it working. And this would represent whether we could scale some of those models. Uh, you know, this deal represented roughly 1 million employees, but it, it could disrupt up to 160 million Americans on similar health plans.

Uh, this remains some of the most profitable business for health systems and carriers today. And any disruption to that business could have a serious impact on the economics of healthcare. And so for that reason, people were taking notice and, you know, . There are other model, I'll talk about this a little bit later, but there are other models where companies are doing this.

Uh, the third reason we were optimistic is it's a problem that sorely needs to be solved. And, uh, these are three companies with a track record of making an impact on industries. So those were some of the reasons we were optimistic, but this is what the founders were saying at the time. This is from Warren Buffet, Berkshire Hathaway, the Ballooning Cost 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. So you get this idea. If this is a problem that has to be solved, this is a, a business. Founder, owner, leader, uh, board chairman, investor who's saying, look, this is really hurting, uh, our economy and it needs to be addressed.

Jamie Diamond, uh, CEO JP Morgan Chase. Uh, people want transparency in more control over their own healthcare, and the partners intend to work toward that for their own employees initially and potentially for all Americans. So Jamie Diamond. is essentially, uh, what he was saying is, look, uh, you know, the free market economy works.

That's, he's a free market economist and he's saying if we provide some of the, uh, mechanisms of the free market to healthcare, it is going to free things up. And one of those is transparency. I. and, uh, and choice and technology and, and those kind of things. And so he was, he was optimistic, uh, based on their ability to bring some things to healthcare, uh, that hadn't been there before.

And finally, Jeff Bezos from Amazon, hard as it might be, reducing healthcare's burden on the economy. While improving outcomes for employees and their families would be worth the effort. Success is going to require talented experts, a beginner's mind, and a long-term orientation, which is exactly how Amazon approaches things.

Uh, they have a track record of doing that, so we were optimistic, but you could almost hear in their, uh, in their quotes that, Hey, we're, we're not arrogant enough to think that we're just gonna walk in here and this is gonna be a, a, you know, walk in the park. These are, uh, seasoned professionals. They knew that it was gonna be a challenge.

You know, today we're gonna start reading the pundit articles on why Haven failed. Most of them are gonna be wrong, and I'm just, I'm reminded of the simple con, you know, of the fact that simple conclusions are often, often wrong and lead to incorrect learning. You know, the, the reality is, um, you know, there still is a problem.

It is a significant problem not only for our economy, but for individuals, for individual business owners, for individuals who, uh, need insurance and need healthcare coverage. You know, the problem is steeped in monopolistic pressure, uh, government regulation, and really logistical challenges. It's, uh, uh, but the reality is some of these things are already being solved and addressed.

So, you know, so what's the so what on this? Uh, don't be lulled into the false conclusion. That this failure indicates anything of substance to the viability of the current model of healthcare, uh, delivery, and the competitive landscape. This failure represents learning. The next competitor may still come from one of these three companies.

They aren't throwing in the towel on solving the problem. They're throwing in the towel in the partnership, and there is a huge difference. You know, consider that you know, Walmart already has a viable model that will begin to scale in the coming years and maybe even the coming months. CVS is breaking down barriers in this space.

Best Buy, as we've talked about before, is, is targeting home care market with technology. Heck, even Amazon's own initiative, which weren't a part of Haven are showing great promise. You know, the problem is real competitors are coming. Resting on our laurels is not an option. So that is my so what for this story.

That's all for today. If you know of someone who might benefit from our channel, please forward them a note. They can subscribe on the website this week, health.com, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Apple, Google Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher. Everywhere. Uh, we want to thank our channel sponsors who are investing in our mission to develop the next generation of health IT leaders, VMware, hillrom, and Starbridge Advisors.

Thanks for listening. That's all for now.