Becker's Spine Review

44 HEALTHCARE NEWS JPMorgan launches healthcare company, Morgan Health By Alia Paavola J PMorgan Chase on May 20 unveiled its new healthcare compa- ny, dubbed Morgan Health, which its top executive told Becker's Hospital Review can be viewed as a continuation of Haven, an ambitious healthcare venture that recently disbanded. "We learned a lot from the Haven experience," Dan Mendelson, CEO of Morgan Health, said. "e Haven experience focused us on prima- ry care, digital medicine and specific populations. … You can see this as a continuation of the work that was started at Haven." However, Mr. Mendelson said there are several key differences be- tween Morgan Health and Haven, the healthcare venture launched by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase in 2018. For one, it has a much more simplified business structure, as it is a unit of JP- Morgan Chase. Second, it has a philosophy of striking partnerships to meet its goals rather than working from the ground up. "We don't want to create things from scratch," Mr. Mendelson said. "We are going to be collaborating with outstanding healthcare orga- nizations nationally to accomplish our objectives. at's another piece that differentiates this effort from the prior one." Morgan Health said its new business is focused on improving employ- er-sponsored healthcare in the U.S. and bringing meaningful innova- tion into the industry by targeting insurance and keeping populations healthy. Success for the company will be measured by whether it im- proves the Triple Aim: quality of care, access to care and cost to deliver care, Mr. Mendelson said. Morgan Health initially will focus its efforts on improving care for JPMorgan Chase employees, but its long-term goals are to become a leader at improving healthcare in the U.S. and to create a successful model other employers can adopt. "We come at this with the benefit of having 285,000 employees and dependents," Mr. Mendelson said. "We have a very strong interest in driving quality improvements for them and also creating models that are reproducible across organizations. We are looking to take a leader- ship role to improve care in the United States." Morgan Health said it has three core focus areas at its launch: improv- ing healthcare by investing $250 million into organizations that are improving employer-sponsored healthcare; piloting new benefits for employees; and promoting healthcare equity for its employees and the broader community. One employee benefit Morgan Health will be piloting is advanced primary care, Mr. Mendelson said. Morgan Health said it is working to create improved primary care capacity to enable employees to bet- ter navigate the healthcare system. One example of this is instead of having employees see just a primary care physician, they would be directed to a clinic that leverages more healthcare talent, such as phar- macists and nurses, to improve health outcomes. Morgan Health said it will work with a range of partners, including provider groups, health plans and other employers. One such organi- zation is CVS Health/Aetna, which is one of JPMorgan Chase's insur- ance carriers, Mr. Mendelson said. "CVS Health has a lot of innovation within the organization that we are not currently tapping into," Mr. Mendelson said. "It's a great exam- ple of a great American company that is ripe for further partnership and innovation in this effort." Morgan Health initially will have 20 dedicated employees, but Mr. Mendelson said the healthcare unit is tapping talent from other exist- ing departments at JPMorgan Chase, including its legal, communica- tions and benefits departments. "is is a company that is very passionate about leading; there's a very deep reservoir of support from the organization to accomplish the objec- tives," Mr. Mendelson said. "ese are objectives that are hard — it will take us time to accomplish and to show meaningful improvement. But there's a sense that this is so important that there's going to be a sustained effort in this regard and that we will achieve our objectives together." Before joining Morgan Health, Mr. Mendelson served as an operat- ing partner at private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. He also is the founder and former CEO of healthcare advisory firm Avalere Health and worked in the White House Office of Management and Budget during the Clinton administration. Mr. Mendelson said his passion for establishing collaborative partner- ships in healthcare will help him succeed in his new role. 7 physicians, CaroMont resolve noncompete clause dispute By Laura Dyrda S even physicians who sued Gastonia, N.C.-based CaroMont Health in 2019 over a noncompete clause in their employment contracts voluntarily dismissed their suit, according to a May 18 report in the Gaston Gazette. The physicians left CaroMont's South Point Family Prac- tice in 2019 to join Tyron Medical Partners, a physician practice launched the year before by almost 100 physi- cians formerly employed by Charlotte, N.C.-based Atri- um Health. CaroMont requested that the seven physicians pay $1.8 million to be released from their noncompete clauses, and the physicians sued to avoid payment. The physi- cians argued that their noncompete clauses only pre- vented them from joining a competing health system within 20 miles of CaroMont, and Tryon is not a hospital or health system. The groups reached a settlement to resolve the dispute.

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