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In the face of the American healthcare crisis , some party have acknowledge the system ’s issue on employee productivity and made healthcare reformation a anteriority . Amazon , JPMorgan Chase , and Berkshire Hathaway built a joint health care venture to re - examine policy benefits , memory access to primary maintenance , and pharmaceutical costs . Finding the ripe soul to take the jumper lead on this project is the first dance step in change the lives of over one million employees between the three companies .
The following is an selection fromCurableby Travis Christofferson . It has been adapted for the web .
In the summer of 2009 Atul Gawande received a surprise in the ring armour . It was a bank check for $ 20,000 sent unannounced by a gentleman’s gentleman named Charlie Munger . Admittedly , Gawande was confused . He had never met Munger or even ever corresponded with him . Gawande , then 43 , was best known for his writing . He had penned two full - selling books , Complications and Better , and was a staff writer for theNew Yorker , which had just published his article “ The Cost Conundrum . ” The article , which I touch on on earlier , was a deep - dive into the massive cost magnetic variation to be found among local health care markets across the United States . The piece focalise specifically on McAllen , Texas , one of the most expensive markets in the country .
Gawande had traveled there personally and uncovered the cause: a local culture of competitive entrepreneurship among the doctors that had manifested in “across-the board overuse of medicine.”
The McAllen physician had been acting less and less like doctor and more and more like man of affairs .
It was this article that had view Munger ’s attention and inspired him to impetuously write out a stop for twenty grand and mail it to the article ’s author . Gawande was give no account for the checkout other than that Munger had deemed his article “ so socially useful . ” Flattered , yet still confused by the spontaneous natural endowment , Gawande mail it back to Munger . “ He broadcast it back to me again and said , ‘ Do with it what you want . ’ ” Gawande finally relented and donate the money to Brigham and Women ’s Center for Surgery and Public Health , where he worked as a surgeon . The money was used to help supply oxygen monitors to modest - income country .
With this leftover exchange behind him , and the money put to good use , Gawande settled back into his officious routine of operating , instruct at Harvard , written material , and lecturing . In 2010Timemagazine name Gawande one of the reality ’s most influential thinkers . In 2012 he published anotherNew York Timesbest - seller , The Checklist Manifesto , and helped launch Ariadne Labs , named for the Greek goddess who show Theseus the way out of the Minotaur ’s snarl using a bare thread . Ariadne Labs serve as a examination ground for eminent - impact “ guiding threads ” like surgical checklist — a bridge between Gawande and his staff ’s innovative ideas about improving health care and their real - world implementation .
Gawande penned more award - winning articles for theNew Yorkerin the days that followed , and in 2014 he demo the BBC ’s imposing Reith Lectures , deport a series of four talk in London , Boston , Edinburgh , and Delhi , entitled “ The Future of Medicine . ” Then , in 2018 , Gawande again listen from Munger .
The true architect behind the Berkshire - Amazon - JPMorgan health care consortium is a gentleman’s gentleman named Todd Combs , one of two investment lieutenants handpicked by Buffett and Munger to win them . It was comb who , in the winter of 2018 , had a flashing of brainwave . Like a sponge , America ’s health maintenance crisis had infect Berkshire and was unrelentingly siphoning away imagination and productivity . But perhaps Berkshire did n’t have to passively give up the broken wellness caution system to exploit their formation , reasoned Combs . Perhaps they couldaddress it internally — fix it from the inside out .
comb is cut from the same cloth as Buffett and Munger , his enlisting by the brace reflecting the self - substantiate culture that Berkshire has naturalize its entire creation . Like Buffett and Munger , he is in a perpetual state of learning . “ I read about 12 hours a day , ” Combs once reported in a rare interview . Like Buffett and Munger , Combs is a scholar of human nature . “ He becharm by psychological science and the sort of biases that drive conclusion - making . Books such asTalent Is OverratedandThe Checklist Manifestohave become staples in the hedging investment firm world , where money managers are forever look for an border . But Combs was interested in those musical theme well before they became voguish , ” said a fellow .
Steeped in Berkshire’s culture, Combs knew that his first steps in tackling a problem as complex as health care were to learn as much as he could, and, vitally, to pick the right person to lead the new venture.
This meant talk to century of mass and researching their pattern of thought and their track records . Gawande does n’t recall precisely when Combs began considering him to head the consortium that he had been quietly put together for months . But the leadership at Berkshire had noticed something over-the-top in him , and he had climbed to the top of their inner listing . And then , in the summer of 2018 , he received a call offer him a job . They asked him to be the chief executive police officer of the Berkshire , Amazon , and JPMorgan wellness fear company . He accepted .
It ’s easy to see why he was pick . Gawande jibe absolutely into the Berkshire acculturation . Like Munger , Buffett , and Combs , Gawande is often described as lowly yet bright , and he ’s a voracious scholar . “ I ca n’t think of anybody who ’d be unspoiled . I do n’t know of anybody who ’d be better , ” order Arnold Epstein of Harvard ’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health . “ He ’s unrestrained . He ’s spooky . And he ’s also incredibly lowly , ” said another co-worker .
But the fledgling company , with its challenging finish , does have its naysayer . “Just because you sleep with an manufacture is underperform and you have a lot of money does n’t mean you have a successful strategy , ” say Leemore Dafny , a professor at Harvard Business School . And Zack Cooper , Yale School of Public Health , tweet : “ I do go for Amazon , JPMorgan , and Berkshire succeed . Health concern is wildly inefficient . However , it ’s a bit like Mayo Clinic , Cleveland Clinic , and Partners in Health amount out and say they do n’t like their computers so they ’re going to shape a unexampled IT company . ”
But the pool is under no magic about the difficulties that they face . And while others may see Gawande ’s relative lack of experience as a negative , Bezos sees it as a forte . “ We said at the kickoff that the arcdegree of trouble is high and success is run to demand an expert ’s cognition , a tiro ’s judgement , and a long - term orientation course . Atul incarnate all three , and we ’re set out potent as we move forward in this challenging and worthwhile endeavour , ” say Bezos .
For now , Gawande is tax with delivering good and more effective care for the speculation ’s 1.2 million employees . But the vision for the venture is much grander , and extends much further . If he can implement scalable improvements , then who knows ? Other health systems may also adopt them . Politicians might even stand to teach from what Gawande and his squad will do . Indeed , for three embodied giants , the finish of the venture is strangely altruistic . It will be set up as a non-profit-making organization and dish as an incubator for ideas that , they desire , will be adopted around the public . “ This work will take time but must be done , ” said Gawande .
“The system is broken, and better is possible.”
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