Amazon.com Inc. is shutting down its telehealth and primary care service. The sudden move resulted from the retail giant’s deal to acquire One Medical – a primary healthcare chain of clinics run by the San Francisco-based 1Life Healthcare Inc.
Neil Lindsay, Senior Vice President of Amazon Care said in an email to the healthcare team that the company that started in 2019 will close by the end of 2022.
Bloomberg reviewed the mail sent by Lindsay. It said it was not made casually and was taken after considering for several months. According to Lindsay, the current offerings from Amazon Care were not sufficient for large business customers. The customers loved many services of Amazon Care. The company was targeting enterprise customers, and the present offerings would not work in the long term.
The displaced workers from Amazon Care will get opportunities to join other teams in Amazon Group.
As per Bloomberg reports earlier this month, Kristen Helton, who headed Amazon Care, is on leave, having taken a break earlier this summer.
The services offered by Amazon Care overlaps with the one offered by One Medical. Amazon had said it would buy the parent company 1Life Healthcare Inc. in an all-cash deal for $3.49 billion.
Expansion Plans
One Medical is present in 25 markets in the US, operating 182 medical offices. Customers pay member subscription fees to avail of all-year-round access to doctors and other digital health services. In February, Amazon announced it would expand to 20 more cities, including Chicago, New York, Miami, and San Francisco.
The news of the latest development came as a surprise to the team of Amazon care. He said that it looked like there was not enough healthcare hiring from the start of Amazon Care. Many people working at Amazon did not know anything about that.
For many years Amazon has tried to enter the healthcare industry. In 2018, it bought PillPack Inc., a mail-order pharmacy company. Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway started a joint venture with Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase Co., offering low-cost medical costs for US employees using technological solutions. The venture fizzled out after three years.
