Employee Benefit Adviser: Amazon’s PillPack deal a warning shot for PBMs

Amazon’s PillPack deal is continuing to make waves across the health insurance industry. From former pharmacists questioning the quality of patient care Amazon will deliver to determining what level of importance Atul Gawande will set the prescription drug acquisition as the head of Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan & Chase healthcare venture, this has been important news for the American … Continue Reading

HR Dive: Healthcare world watches as Amazon makes moves

The rapidity with which Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase have entered the healthcare industry is in part a response to frustrations — held by both employers and the general public — about inefficiencies in the U.S. healthcare system, sources previously told HR Dive. “Affordability is the issue,” Shandon Fowler, an analyst and principal of … Continue Reading

The Case for ‘Private Exchange 2.0’

This article was originally published with co-author George Kalogeropoulos, CEO of HealthSherpa, on LinkedIn. You’ll be hard-pressed to find somebody with ties to employer-based benefits who doesn’t have a visceral reaction to the term “private exchange.” Sadly, this reaction was largely earned over almost a decade of huge expectations but sometimes under-delivered or ahead-of-their-time options … Continue Reading

Why Employers Should Guide Non-Benefits-Eligible Employees to Public Sources of Health Coverage

  • March 21, 2018
  • Blog

This article was originally published with co-author George Kalogeropoulos, CEO of HealthSherpa, on LinkedIn. If ever there was a topic and industry that doesn’t benefit from binary thinking, it’s the U.S. healthcare system. Far too often, we find ourselves treating multifaceted issues as if there are only two available paths: employer vs. government; eligible vs. … Continue Reading

The Four C’s that Will Drive Success (or Failure) for the Amazon/Berkshire-Hathaway/JPMorganChase Partnership

  • February 28, 2018
  • Blog

Has it been surprising how much we’ve all talked about, and wanted to talk more about, the partnership between Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorganChase (ABJ for short) on healthcare? In a way, yes. Such wonkishness usually doesn’t capture the public interest with such staying power. Yet, when you have two guys who’ve been Richest Person … Continue Reading

HR Dive: Does Amazon alliance signal employers will finally get serious about healthcare costs?

But Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan have name recognition, most notably Amazon for its reputation as a disruptor, Fowler said. To most observers, it’s no surprise that big-name employers are now loudly demanding a space at the healthcare negotiation table. “For the past couple of decades, employers haven’t really used their leverage or they used … Continue Reading

Imagining a Post-Employer-Mandate (and Coverage) World

  • January 18, 2018
  • Blog

After a year of false starts on “repeal-and-replace,” rarely a day passes now that some action isn’t taken on healthcare reform. After the Individual Mandate zero-out surprisingly made it into tax reform at year-end, we’re already on to considering association health plans and work requirements for Medicaid. Yet, the largest single segment of health insurance coverage in the U.S. — … Continue Reading

ATTN: Employees! Should you get (and use) telemedicine?

  • November 21, 2017
  • Blog

Confession: I fired my primary care provider a few years ago. She was really nice and seemed to be a great doctor. In fact, she had been named to multiple lists of the best doctors in the city. But I never got out of her office without spending 45 minutes or more in the waiting … Continue Reading