- Amazon Care began as a service for Seattle-based Amazon employees.
- It combined virtual health care services with the option of a nurse’s home visit.
- The business offered the programme to companies in all 50 states in February, and will cease operations at the end of 2021.
Amazon intends to discontinue Amazon Care, the virtual health service it introduced in 2019, by the end of 2021. The business informed the staff of the decision on Wednesday.
Neil Lindsay, Amazon’s senior vice president of health, wrote in an email to staff that was shared with Fierce Healthcare, “Although our enrolled members have loved many aspects of Amazon Care, it is not a complete enough offering for the large enterprise customers we have been targeting, and wasn’t going to work long-term.” The whole memo has been obtained and is included at the end of this report.
The Care began as a service for Seattle-based Amazon employees. It combined virtual health care services with the option of a nurse’s home visit. The business offered the programme to companies in all 50 states in February. Amazon added mental health care this month through a partnership with Ginger.
The decision to close an in-house health service follows Amazon’s planned acquisition of One Medical. Reportedly, Amazon is also interested in acquiring Signify Health, a provider of technologies for at-home health care.
Amazon, like the majority of technology corporations, desires to expand into the lucrative healthcare market. In 2018, it acquired the prescription delivery service PillPack and operates its own pharmacy.
Haven, a health venture Amazon established with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, collapsed in 2021. According to a Morgan Stanley poll, Amazon’s in-house pharmacy hasn’t driven Prime subscriptions.
The service will cease operations on December 31.
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