Amazon Healthcare – Strategy, Virtual health service [2023]

Amazon Healthcare

Amazon Healthcare is an app for medical providers for fundamental health issues like coughs or fevers.

Basically, Users can connect with a clinician via video calls or in-app text messaging. Workers in the greater Seattle area can access in-person care or have prescriptions delivered.

The company provides the care with doctors from Care Medical, a Washington group that – according to BI’s reporting – contracts exclusively with Amazon.

However, Amazon Care has been kept separate from other health-related verticals at the company.

It includes Amazon Web Services, Amazon Pharmacy, and Amazon Business for healthcare.

When other companies use Amazon Care’s services, all the services (including in-person visits) would be available to workers who live near headquarters, said BI.

And also, those who live in other cities or states would access the virtual components, similar to Amazon staff members who live outside Seattle.

Health care is the maintenance or improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, recovery, or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people.

However, Health professionals and allied health fields deliver health care.

Amazon’s healthcare strategy

• Over the past year, Amazon has made several significant partnerships and investments in the healthcare space, likely to continue into the new decade.
• Basically, Amazon is among the tech giants making the most significant impact on healthcare and its vast number of users and sellers.
• It can be a fertile testing ground for future healthcare applications, according to CBInsights.
• The company has around 1.2 million employees in Haven, the Amazon-JPMorgan, Berkshire Hathaway partnership.
• And also, it has an estimated 5 million sellers and 310 million active users, including 100 million Amazon Prime members.
• In March, Amazon made a $2 million investment in Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to test artificial intelligence tools.
• However, the two had partnered since 2016 when Beth Israel bought AWS’s cloud software and reported significant improvements in operating efficiency.
• In April, Amazon Prime users began to receive email marketing about PillPack, an online pharmacy service Amazon acquired in 2018.
• Amazon is attempting to convince more big-name insurers to integrate its pharmacy services into their health benefit plans.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts

• Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is already in line for integration.
• Amazon launched its healthcare program, Amazon Care, for employees in Seattle on Sept 24.
• Moreover, the program offers virtual health clinics and in-home follow-up visits. The Virtual services include in-app visits with physicians, nurse practitioners, or nurses.
• In October, Amazon announced it would send employees to California for Cancer Care.
• The company now pays travel expenses for employees diagnosed with cancer to see physicians at Duarte, Calif.-based City of Hope.
• Moreover, Amazon hopes to lower healthcare spending.
• For the third quarter of 2019, Amazon reported its first earnings decline in two years. However, AWS revenue was up 35 percent, hitting $9 billion.
• The company said projected net sales to grow between 11 percent and 20 percent in the whole year.
• On Oct 30, AWS, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and Cardinal Health announced a partnership with digital health company Virtusa.
• They use artificial intelligence in medical research. Virtusa’s cloud platform is available through AWS’s marketplace.
• However, Amazon Web Services deepened its Next Gen Stats partnership with the NFL in December to advance player health.
• The association plans to use AWS artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide insights into player injuries.
• And also, it learns how equipment, game rules, and rehabilitation strategies can affect player health.

Experience a new kind of healthcare

• Amazon Care is healthcare built around you, your life, and your schedule.

Clinicians on your schedule

• Connect in seconds, day or night, on weekends and holidays.

Care that comes to you

• At-home follow-up care for labs, tests, and treatment.

Dedicated Care Teams

• Quality time with your team of doctors, nurse practitioners, and registered nurses

Prescriptions made easy

• Contact-free prescriptions delivered right to your door.

Amazon Care virtual health service

• Amazon plans to expand its virtual health service benefit to all its U.S. employees this summer while also making it available to other companies.
• Eighteen months ago, the tech giant announced piloting a new virtual health service benefit for employees and their families in the Seattle region called Amazon Care.
• The service offers virtual visits, in-person primary care visits at patients’ homes or offices, and prescription delivery.
• However, the on-demand healthcare service helps employees to connect with medical professionals via chat or video conference, typically in less than 60 seconds.
• And it eliminates lengthy wait and travel times to get medical attention, Amazon said in a press release.
• Starting Wednesday, Amazon Care is available to serve other Washington-based companies.
• This summer, Amazon Care will expand its virtual care to companies and Amazon employees in all 50 states.
• Amazon Care’s in-person service will expand to Washington DC, Baltimore, and other cities in the coming months, the company said.
• And also, the services include video care, in-app text chat with clinicians, mobile care visits, prescription delivery from a care courier, and in-person care.
• However, Amazon Care can dispatch a medical professional to a patient’s home for services ranging from routine blood draws to listening to a patient’s lungs.

Services for patients and users beyond urgent care needs

• Basically, Services includes lifestyle and wellness coaching, sleep care, and preventative services such as immunizations, including pediatric vaccinations.
• And also, it provides Covid-19 vaccinations for those who are eligible.
• As many are struggling through complex, confusing experiences signing up for a vaccine, this could be a game-changer for employers that want to bring employees back into the office.

Support for ongoing chronic care

• Chronic care management and Knowledge management systems delivered as a virtual-first model is expected to gain more traction in the market, including virtual primary care models.
• However, Forrester projected this area to be the biggest driver of virtual care in 2021, representing up to 63% of all visits.
• It is an estimate of 280 million trips for regular or routine maintenance.

Help for employees suffering from joint pain

• With millions working from home, remote setups are highly variable, with employees working from kitchen counters to couches and even closets.
• However, Companies like Kiio, Physera (owned by Omada Health), and Kaia Health have seen success in this area already.

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