Jamie Dimon set out how his new venture with Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway plans to tackle some of healthcare’s biggest problems

Jamie Dimon

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon thinks the US can do better when it comes to healthcare and spelled that out in his annual letter.
Dimon's teaming up with Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway to form an independent nonprofit venture to lower healthcare costs and improve the healthcare outcomes for their employees.
The details about the joint venture have been limited so far, but Dimon said the plan is to hire a management team for the venture that's focused on a few broad healthcare topics, including changing the way we pay for healthcare, empowering consumers to make better healthcare choices, and finding ways to cut down on costs within the existing system.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon thinks the US can do better when it comes to healthcare.

Specifically, Dimon wrote in his annual letter, that the US healthcare system can improve when it comes to treating chronic conditions that are preventable or reversible, spending less on administrative and fraud costs, and on getting better health outcomes for lower costs.

The failures of the healthcare system have wide-ranging impacts, according to Dimon, who said the real problem with the US deficit is the "uncontrolled growth of our entitlement programs," and that in turn "the core issue underpinning the entitlements problem is healthcare in the United States."

With that in mind, Dimon said there needs to be bipartisan group of experts focused on fixing healthcare.

"I am convinced that this can be done, and if done properly, it will actually improve the outcomes and satisfaction of all American citizens," he wrote in the letter.

To that end, in January, Dimon announced he's teaming up with Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway to form an independent nonprofit venture to lower healthcare costs and improve the healthcare outcomes for their employees. The three companies are self-insured employers, which means that when you're an employee going to a doctor's appointment, your employer is ultimately footing the bill for the MRI you receive, rather than a health insurer.

Eventually, Dimon said he hopes to "possibly help inform public policy for the country."

"The effort will start very small, but there is much to do, and we are optimistic," Dimon said in the letter.

The details about the joint venture have been limited so far, but Dimon said the plan is to hire a management team for the venture that's focused on few broad healthcare topics. Those include:

Changing the way healthcare gets paid for, so it becomes a system that incentivizes keeping people healthy rather than charging based on how much care is used. "The United States has the highest costs associated with the worst outcomes because we’re getting what we incentivize," Dimon said. In fact, Journal of the American Medical Association report in March found that America spends about twice as much as other high-income countries on healthcare.
Understanding the money spent on waste in the system, along with administration and fraud costs.
Getting employees to be better healthcare consumers "by owning their own healthcare data with access to excellent telemedicine options." Dimon noted that high deductible health plans have "hardly worked" in setting up that consumer choice.
Making wellness programs to help with smoking and obesity, two things associated with a big chunk of chronic conditions like cancer and heart disease.
Pinpointing which medications that cost a lot are being over or under-used by employees. Others, including city governments, have looked into this in the past to tackle high drug costs.
In that same vein, looking into the amount of money that's spent on end-of-life care.

Dimon said he plans to report on the venture's progress "in the coming years."

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