A new healthcare venture is causing concern for some clients of JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s investment-banking arm, The Wall Street Journal reported Feb. 4, citing people familiar with the matter.
On Jan. 30, JPMorgan Chase, Amazon.com Inc. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. disclosed a partnership aiming to reduce healthcare costs for their employees. The CEOs of those respective companies said initially that the partnership will use technological solutions to offer "simplified, high-quality and transparent healthcare at a reasonable cost."

A few large insurers aired their concerns to JPMorgan officials after the companies made the announcement, some of the sources told the Journal. In fact, according to the report, JPMorgan CEO James Dimon began working the phones on Jan. 30 in an effort to allay those concerns.
The Journal's sources said that some of the company's healthcare bankers also did so. JPMorgan's healthcare bankers, according to sources, only became aware of the initiative around 9 p.m. on Jan. 29, the night before the announcement.
JPMorgan bankers reportedly told some clients that the venture is similar to a group purchasing organization used by hospitals to buy supplies, so the companies involved can score more attractively priced deals for their workforce.
People familiar with the process told the Journal that a small team largely composed of members of JPMorgan's corporate-strategy group quietly worked on the initiative for several months with Dimon and counterparts from Amazon and Berkshire.
