The retreat by Amazon in its efforts to break into the health care space is marked by the fact that it is shutting down its telehealth service.
Neil Lindsay, lead for Amazon Health Services, said in a company email that the service will close at the end of the year. Lindsay wrote in the memo that it wasn't the right long-term solution for the company's enterprise customers.
Lindsay said that the decision was made after a lot of careful consideration. It is not a complete enough offering for the large enterprise customers we have been targeting, and wasn't going to work long term.
Lindsay wrote that Amazon gained a deeper understanding of what's needed long-term to deliver meaningful health care solutions for enterprise and individual customers through its roll out of Amazon Care.
Amazon Care is a pilot program for employees in Seattle. Virtual urgent care visits, as well as free telehealth consults and in- home visits for a fee from nurses, are provided by the service.
The service has been in the works for a long time. Amazon held a secret meeting in Seattle to learn more about patient care that was attended by some of the biggest names in health care. A group of doctors were hired to start a pilot clinic.
In February, the company rolled out Amazon Care's virtual offerings nationwide for its employees and other companies.
It's not clear how much traction Amazon Care had. In June of last year, Babak Parviz, a vice president at Amazon, said that the company had attracted several companies to use the service. Whole Foods is the company-owned upscale grocery.
Andy Jassy has pledged to make inroads in the health care industry, but Amazon is ending the service. One Medical was acquired by Amazon last month. It wants to develop at- home medical diagnostics. According to The Wall Street Journal, Amazon is bidding for Signify Health.
The entire memo is here.
The health services team is made up of people.
A missionary opportunity is being worked on by us. We want to make it easier for people to get the health care products and services they need. We know it will be difficult, but we believe it will be worth it.
We have worked towards this vision with our urgent and primary care offering, Amazon Care. We gathered and listened to feedback from enterprise customers and employees and evolved the service to continually improve the experience for customers. We decided that Amazon Care isn't the right long-term solution for our enterprise customers and will no longer offer it after December 31, 2022.
After a lot of careful consideration, this decision became clear. It is not a complete enough offering for the large enterprise customers we have been targeting, and wasn't going to work long term.
We have deepened our understanding of what is needed long-term to deliver meaningful health care solutions for enterprise and individual customers. The health care space is ripe for reinvention, and our efforts to improve the health care experience can have an immensely positive impact on our quality of life and health outcomes. None of these reasons make it easier for the teams that helped to build Amazon Care or for the customers we serve.
We want to support you no matter what path you take. Many Care employees will have the chance to join other parts of the Health Services organization or other teams at Amazon, and we will also support employees looking for roles outside of the company.
Thank you to the Amazon Care and Care Medical teams for their hard work over the years. In a short period of time, this team has accomplished a lot. Our members and business customersentrusting us with their care is a responsibility that we take very seriously. As we learn from Amazon Care, we will continue to invent, learn from our customers, and hold ourselves to the highest standards.
It has been sincerely.
Neil is a man.
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