by Elizabeth Hofheinz, M.P.H., M.Ed., October 4, 2019
If a Seattle-based Amazon employee has a rash or a mysterious fever, he or she can now partake of the company’s latest foray into the healthcare arena—“Amazon Care”— a pilot virtual health clinic for employees and their family members who live in Seattle.
According to the recent Modern Healthcare article (“Amazon pilots virtual health clinic for employees,” Jessica Kim Cohen, September 24, 2019), “Amazon Care is marketed as a benefit being piloted for company employees enrolled in an Amazon health insurance plan, according to a company website. Employees will be able to reach physicians or nurses for urgent care, preventive health consults and sexual health services, such as testing for sexually transmitted infections.”
“Employees will be able to chat with clinicians via a messaging app, video consultations and home visits. Employees can also request for a courier to deliver their prescriptions to their home or office.”
The pilot is only available to employees and their families in the Seattle area. However, there are more than 53,500 Amazon employees living in the Seattle region, according to the Seattle Times.
“Last year, Amazon teamed up with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase—dubbed Haven—that they said would leverage their combined scale and expertise to develop technology solutions to provide employees and their families ‘simplified, high-quality and transparent healthcare at a reasonable cost.’”
Chris Stewart, CEO at Surgio Healthcare Technology and COO at Ortho Spine Partners
“There is a growing opportunity for a ‘concierge’ type of experience for the medical management of today’s healthcare consumer. There is no doubt we are going to see more of these offerings from tech giants, because they have the technological means to customize, automate and simplify a traditionally archaic, arduous and complex provider experience.”
