Though the details of the healthcare group Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway formed Tuesday are vague, some analysts are speculating telehealth, EHRs and the real-time tracking of health data may be the sectors it tackles first, according to Todd Campbell, an analyst at The Motley Fool, in an op-ed for Yahoo! Finance.
The idea behind the collaboration is to leverage technologies that would drive down healthcare costs. About 20 percent of the $3.3 trillion the U.S. spends annually on healthcare goes to physicians and clinical services. According to Mr. Campbell, this implies that "any effort to control healthcare costs will include reforming access to primary care, urgent care and specialists" — namely, telehealth.
Telehealth companies like Teladoc could benefit most from the collaboration. The virtual care business plays a pivotal role in expanding access to care, particularly for rural patients, even though many people aren't aware the services exist.
In fact, Mr. Campbell suggests the new three-company collaboration could team up with Teladoc. Teladoc's 75 percent market share is three times bigger than its next three competitors combined, he writes, adding that Teladoc's acquisition of Best Doctors, a service that connects patients to specialists, makes it even more appealing.
"If Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan team up with Teladoc to transition more patients to the cloud, it could relieve bottlenecks associated with access to care —particularly in rural areas — and reduce costs by cutting down on unnecessary ER visits and testing," Mr. Campbell writes. "Given that Teladoc is already serving 300 of the Fortune 1,000 companies, I think it makes sense that Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan would turn to them if their solution includes telehealth."
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