Why Amazon will shut down its Care telemedicine service
Amazon is shutting down its telemedicine service, Amazon Care. The move follows the decision to acquire the One Medical clinic chain, a sign that the Bezos tech giant has no plans to leave the healthcare sector
The e-commerce giant founded by Jeff Bezos plans to close its Amazon Care virtual health service by the end of this year.
This was reported by American media, taking up a corporate communication signed by Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services.
However, Amazon continues to brand the healthcare sector. Last month it announced that it would shell out $ 3.9 billion for the acquisition last month of One Medical (an innovative primary medicine and telemedicine services company) and after making a deal with Ginger (a service that offers online consultancy). related to mental health).
A month ago it emerged that the US tech giant is also working on developing personalized vaccines against breast and skin cancers. In particular, the e-commerce giant is collaborating with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle. And earlier this week Bloomberg and the Journal named Amazon among the companies that made an offer to acquire Signify Health, a company that deals with home health care and in particular to maximize insurance plans.
All the details.
THE E-COMMERCE COLOSSUS WILL CLOSE AMAZON CARE
Amazon Care will end the service after December 31st. The e-commerce giant launched Amazon Care in 2019 as a pilot program for employees in and around the company's Seattle headquarters. The service includes virtual urgent visits, free telemedicine consultations and paid home visits by nurses for tests and vaccinations.
But now he has Amazon's telemedicine service on numbered days. Executive Lindsay explained to staff that Amazon Care had shortcomings despite the company's efforts.
THE MOTIVATIONS
"It is not a comprehensive enough offering for the large customers we have targeted and it will not work in the long term," the note reads. It is unclear how much Amazon Care has earned. Last June, Babak Parviz, a vice president working on Amazon Care, said Amazon has attracted several companies interested in using the service. Its corporate clients include Hilton, Silicon Labs, TrueBlue, and Whole Foods, the Seattle-owned company-owned supermarket chain.
BEHIND THE HEALTH SECTOR?
But if Amazon is pulling out of its health service, it doesn't mean CEO Andy Jassy intends to back off in the health sector. Last month Amazon bought 1Life Helthcare, a healthcare company under the name One Medical, for a total of $ 3.9 billion. This was announced by the same company, stating that it had valued the acquired company $ 18 per share. The deal also included the debts of One Medical, which operates in the field of primary health care in partnership with more than 8,000 companies throughout the United States. And earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon is bidding on home health care provider Signify Health.
THE COMMENT OF THE EXPERTS
Notably, the One Medical acquisition is Amazon's largest healthcare deal.
"Such an acquisition, if approved by regulators, would provide Amazon much of the access to the corporate employees it was looking for with Amazon Care," said Christina Farr, health technology investor at Omers Ventures, reports the Ft . Big companies like Google offer One Medical to employees reminds the London financial newspaper.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/perche-amazon-chiudera-il-suo-servizio-di-telemedicina-care/ on Fri, 26 Aug 2022 06:06:10 +0000.