Press "Enter" to skip to content

Amazon Winding Down Remote, In-Home Health Service Amazon Care

Retail and technology giant Amazon (NYSE: AMZN) is reportedly jettisoning its telehealth and in-home care platform.

The company this week internally announced that it will shut down Amazon Care by the end of the year, according to a memo shared with The Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos.

The move comes a little more than a month after the retail giant announced it is seeking a nearly $4 billion acquisition of One Medical, a tech-enabled primary care provider that provides similar services to Amazon Care’s.

Through Amazon Care, users can access telehealth services, such as remotely meeting with a doctor; or, in some areas, receive services including vaccinations and health screenings in their home from the company’s clinician “care teams.”

In the memo first shared with GeekWire and Fierce Healthcare, Amazon Senior Vice President of Health Neil Lindsay called the service “not a complete enough offering for the large enterprise customers we have been targeting, and wasn’t going to work long-term.”

“Our vision is to make it easier for people to access the health care products and services they need to get and stay healthy. We know accomplishing this won’t be easy or fast, but we believe it matters,” he reportedly wrote in the letter.

The Post also last week reported on some past tensions between Amazon and some of the clinicians offering services through Amazon Care.

Amazon first launched the service in 2019, and initially for employees. Earlier this year, the company rolled out its telehealth services to all 50 states. Clients include Silicon Labs; Precor; Whole Foods, which is owned by Amazon; and Hilton, which adopted and deployed Amazon Care less than a year ago, according to The Washington Post.

While Amazon’s ultimate goal in the space is still unclear, the company has made strides in recent years to become a much bigger player in both the health and senior care industries.

The company last year hired senior living veteran Ginna Baik to the post of senior business development manager for senior living, where she joined its Alexa Smart Properties team. Later that year, Alexa Smart Properties announced the launch of an enterprise version of the voice-activated smart assistant for hospitals and senior living communities, including Atria Senior Living.

Amazon is also now holding an open competition for developers to create Alexa skills specifically for seniors — both at home and in senior living communities — with prizes for chosen skills exceeding $45,000.

And it appears as though Amazon has more plans to grow in health care. Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon is now among the bidders for in-home health care company Signify Health (NYSE: SGFY).

The post Amazon Winding Down Remote, In-Home Health Service Amazon Care appeared first on Senior Housing News.

Source: For the full article please visit Senior Housing News

Be First to Comment

    Leave a Reply