After last week’s announcement, in which Amazon, JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway teamed up to tackle their employees’ increasing healthcare costs, health tech is speculating just how much disruption the new effort could cause.
Castlight, which developed an online tool that works with employers to help workers navigate their health benefits, offers a unique perspective on the industry’s latest, most-talked about venture.
According to Mr. Doyle, Castlight’s experience with Amazon shows the company is more “focused on a competitive benefits package for its employees,” although the announcement didn’t suggest specifics of its new company.
“It’s not too speculative to imagine that the initiative is about ensuring the sustainability of current benefits, as opposed to reducing current health costs,” he suggests to CNBC.
Mr. Doyle adds it may be best for the trio to partner with existing solutions.
“There’s this notion that it’s easier to disrupt if you bring in a lot of people who have never worked in healthcare, like technology-oriented entrepreneurs with great intentions. But I see that as missing some of the complexity and falling prey to the siren song of fixing healthcare,” he told CNBC. “The better approach in my mind is to work with the existing players, and not against them.”
Click here to read the full interview.
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