Amazon, JPMorgan, Berkshire Hathaway have healthcare CEO in mind: Dr. Cosgrove
Cleveland Clinic executive advisor Dr. Toby Cosgrove on Friday told FOX Business that Amazon, JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway have found a candidate to run their healthcare venture.
“They have, I think identified the individual they’re looking for and probably just about to sign him,” he told FOX Business’ Liz Claman on “Countdown to the Closing Bell.”
Warren Buffett, Jamie Dimon and Jeff Bezos are trying to revolutionize the healthcare industry by launching an independent operation, without the help of pharmacy chains and healthcare insurers. The three corporate giants are looking to cut their healthcare costs and to provide a low-cost, direct service to their employees.
“They may not be in it for profit, but they’re certainly in it for savings and that translates into profits and they have a lot of employees and they’re interested in saving on the healthcare of those employees,” Dr. Cosgrove said.
One of the biggest challenges facing the three companies is how they are going to afford to pay for their not-for-profit company.
In a statement, Berkshire CEO Warren Buffett said, “The ballooning costs of healthcare act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy.”
Dr. Cosgrove believes the companies’ venture is “doable,” as long as it is done through the private sector.
“We have done this at the Cleveland Clinic with some 100,000 of our employees’ independence, we’ve reduced the cost of healthcare, it went down 2% last year and hasn’t gone up for the last four or five. So this is an important and doable sort of thing that you can do in the private sector,” he said.
Dr. Cosgrove said fast-growing healthcare costs, technological advances and the population’s expectations for lower healthcare costs will drive consumers to the private sector.
