JPMorgan Chase Launches New Unit to Improve Care Quality for Employees

Just months after ending its Haven collaborative with Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway to cut employee health care costs and improve quality, JPMorgan Chase is banking on a new model. It plans to invest up to $250 million in a new venture — Morgan Health — to improve outcomes and promote health equity.

The company plans to collaborate with leading health care organizations and ultimately to develop models for other employers looking to improve health care. Morgan Health also will look for ways to improve behavioral health and management of specific diseases, and tackle disparities that have raised costs and led to health care inequities.

Dan Mendelson, a former Clinton White House health official who also founded the consultancy Avalere Health, and Peter Scher, JPMorgan Chase vice chair, will head Morgan Health. In a company statement and media interviews just after the announcement, Mendelson said it will take time to generate results and declined to provide specific goals, but he stressed that the new venture will have a longer life span than Haven.

Like JPMorgan Chase, Amazon took steps after the closing of Haven to reduce its employee health care costs, improve quality and simplify access. The Amazon Care telehealth program, which originally was offered to employees in select locations, is now offered to all Amazon staff and their dependents and also is being marketed to other businesses.