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Making insurance intelligible is the core mission of the health care venture led by Atul Gawande and founded by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and J.P. Morgan Chase, according to testimony unsealed on Wednesday from the venture’s chief operating officer. The COO, Jack Stoddard, also focused on the venture’s approach to prescription drug prices — and to the flaws and foibles of a notoriously opaque system. “You can imagine our employers are — just given who supports us — are incredibly allergic to market inefficiencies,” Stoddard said. (Sheridan, 2/20)

A health-care joint venture launched by Amazon.com Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. is looking at how to redesign health insurance, among other efforts, according to newly unsealed court testimony from an executive at the health startup. The three companies announced the venture last year with stated goals of trying to improve health care and rein in costs for their employees. The still-unnamed venture has released few specifics, however, about its long-term aims. (Kamp and Wilde Mathews, 2/20)

[Charles] Munger has called health care one of the hardest tasks on Berkshire’s agenda. The company announced last year that it was teaming up with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Amazon.com Inc. to tackle the problem for employees of the three companies.In June, the venture named Atul Gawande, a surgeon and journalist, to lead it and has since hired key employees. Buffett has said the effort will try to deliver better medical service at a lower cost, but has also acknowledged the challenges. The trio haven’t divulged too many secrets about how the venture is working, so any commentary from Buffett could influence investors’ perceptions on the push. Signs of success would reverberate throughout the industry. (Chiglinsky, 2/21)