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47 HEALTHCARE NEWS Amazon, JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway Launch New Healthcare Company: 6 Things to Know By Ayla Ellison A mazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are launching a new company aimed at cutting healthcare costs for their U.S. employees. Here are six things to know about the partnership. 1. In addition to reducing healthcare costs, the companies are aiming to improve employee satisfaction through the new venture. Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan are hoping the sheer size of each company and their com- plementary areas of expertise will help them tackle these issues. 2. "Our people want transparency, knowledge and control when it comes to managing their healthcare," said Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan. "e 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." 3. e companies said the project, which is in the early planning stage, will initially focus on technology solutions. 4. "e healthcare 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 healthcare's burden on the economy while improving outcomes for employees and their fam- ilies would be worth the effort. Success is going to require talented experts, a beginner's mind and a long-term ori- entation." 5. e new venture will be jointly spearheaded by Todd Combs, an investment officer of Berkshire Hathaway; Mar- velle Sullivan Berchtold, a managing director of JPMorgan Chase; and Beth Galetti, a senior vice president at Amazon. 6. "e ballooning costs of healthcare act as a hungry tape- worm on the American economy," said Berkshire Hatha- way Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett. "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 con- currently enhancing patient satisfaction and outcomes." n Aetna's Former Medical Director Says He Never Reviewed Patient Records Before Denying Care By Ayla Ellison C alifornia's insurance commissioner is investigating Aetna af- ter one of the health insurer's former medical directors ad- mitted under oath he never reviewed patients' medical re- cords when deciding whether to approve or deny claims, according to CNN. Jay Iinuma, MD, who served as medical director for Aetna for South- ern California from March 2012 through February 2015, said in a 2016 deposition he followed Aetna's training by relying on rec- ommendations from nurses when deciding whether to approve or deny care. California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones expressed outrage after recently reading the deposition transcript. "It's hard to imagine that in that entire course in time, there weren't any cases in which a decision about the denial of coverage ought to have been made by someone trained as a physician, as opposed to some other licensed professional," he told CNN. "That's why we've contacted Aetna and asked that they provide us information about how they are making these claims decisions and why we've opened this investigation." Dr. Iinuma's deposition came as part of a lawsuit filed by a 23-year- old college student, Gillen Washington. Mr. Washington, who suf- fers from a rare immune disorder, sued Aetna for breach of contract and bad faith after Aetna refused to cover an infusion of intravenous immunoglobulin when he was 19. He claims Aetna's "reckless with- holding of benefits almost killed him," according to CNN. In response to CNN's questions, Aetna defended its practices and the coverage decision in Mr. Washington's case. "Medical directors — and all of our clinicians — take their duties and responsibilities as medical professionals incredibly seriously," Aetna said in a statement to CNN. "Similar to most other clinical environments, our medical directors work collaboratively with our nurses who are involved in these cases and factor in their input as part of the decision-making process."n

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