Haven, a healthcare startup founded by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase, is shutting down after 3 years

In January 2018, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase joined forces to tackle the challenges of health care with the launch of a new healthcare startup known as Haven. Back then, their mission was to improve employee satisfaction and reducing costs.

Now, three years later, the Amazon-Berkshire-JPMorgan venture founded to disrupt healthcare, is shutting down its operations, according to the message posted on its website. The abrupt shutdown further shows how difficult it is to penetrate into the healthcare space. In a message posted on its website, the company said:

“In the past three years, Haven explored a wide range of healthcare solutions, as well as piloted new ways to make primary care easier to access, insurance benefits simpler to understand and easier to use, and prescription drugs more affordable.”

Haven added: ”

“Moving forward, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. will leverage these insights and continue to collaborate informally to design programs tailored to address the specific needs of their own employee populations. Haven will end its independent operations at the end of February 2021.”

Haven has notified its employees Monday that it will shut down by the end of next month, according to a report from CNBC, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter. 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 healthcare projects, the people said.

In its January 2018 announcement, Haven said that by bringing together three of the world’s leading organizations into this new and innovative construct, the group hopes to draw on its combined capabilities and resources to take a fresh approach to these critical matters.

“The ballooning costs of health care 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. Rather, we share the belief that putting our collective resources behind the country’s best talent can, in time, check the rise in health costs while concurrently enhancing patient satisfaction and outcomes,” said Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO, Warren Buffett.

“The health care system is complex, and we enter into this challenge open-eyed about the degree of difficulty,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. “Hard as it might be, reducing health care’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.”

“Our people want transparency, knowledge and control when it comes to managing their health care,” said Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co.. “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,” he added.