Author: David King
Amazon Care, a virtual health service initially introduced in 2019, will be discontinued before the end of the year.
Amazon Care staff members received the news from the corporation on Wednesday.
In the beginning, Amazon Care was only available to Seattle-based Amazon employees. It combines online medical services with the choice of a nurse visiting you at home.
In February, the company extend the program nationally. This made it available to businesses in all 50 states wishing to offer their staff the service.
Even this month, when a webpage said that Amazon was partnering with mental health business, Ginger, to enhance mental health services.
Why does the Company Plan to Discontinue its Virtual Service?
The decision to discontinue an internal health service comes shortly after Amazon announced its intention to purchase primary care provider One Medical.
Additionally, Signify Health, a business that develops technology for home healthcare, is also getting Amazon’s attention.
Like most tech companies, Amazon wants to enter the lucrative healthcare business.
In 2018 it acquired PillPack, a startup that delivers prescription drugs and operates a pharmacy. However, this is not the first time Amazon has abruptly ended a health endeavor.
In 2021, Haven, a project to revolutionize the healthcare market that began with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, failed. A recent survey by Morgan Stanley found that its internal pharmacy hasn’t been a significant factor in driving customers to subscribe to Prime.
Closing of this service in the United States by Amazon
Lindsay stated that Amazon worked to improve Amazon Care by considering employer ideas in the email sent to employees.
Lindsay added that despite all these efforts, we have decided that Amazon Care is not the best long-term answer for our commercial customers.
He continued, saying that Amazon Care wasn’t likely to work out that way and isn’t a complete solution to the large corporate users they’ve been pursuing.
Amazon gave a copy of the email to Fierce Healthcare.
The move does not affect Amazon’s other healthcare services; it only affects the Care and Care Medical teams. According to Lindsay’s email to staff, while running Amazon Care, the business collected and listened to considerable input from its corporate users and their staff, and changed the program to enhance the customers’ experience.
Lindsay also added that despite their efforts, they’ve concluded that Amazon Care isn’t the best long-term option for their corporate users.
We will no longer be offering Amazon Care beyond December 31, 2022. This choice wasn’t made hastily, it is made after giving it significant thought for many months.
However, the service wasn’t comprehensive enough for the considerable enterprise clients we were aiming for and wouldn’t be successful over the long term.
Conclusion
The news came as a huge shock, given that Amazon has been attempting to grow its healthcare operations. Moreover, Amazon recently announced intentions to spend about $4 billion to buy One Medical, which provides in-person and online primary care services. Additionally, speculation has surfaced that Amazon may be bidding on other healthcare organizations, including the home care provider Signify Health.