Amazon Clinic is a message-based online healthcare service that offers treatments for over 20 common health conditions.
Amazon Clinic requires customers to select the condition they need treatment for and then choose a preferred provider from a list of licensed providers. Customers can connect with clinicians via a secure message based portal after completing an intake questionnaire. A personalized treatment plan will be provided via the portal along with any necessary prescriptions, which can be filled at any pharmacy of the customer's choice.
Up to two weeks of follow up messages between customers and clinicians are included in consultations. According to Amazon, the cost of care is equivalent or less than the average copay. Amazon Clinic does not accept insurance, but the service is eligible for Flexible Spending Account and Health Savings Account, and customers may be able to use their insurance for prescriptions.
The service has birth control and treatment for common conditions. The Clinic can be used to refill existing prescriptions for conditions like asthma and high blood pressure, as well as provide additional treatments for pre-diagnosed conditions. One Medical, which is in the process of being acquired by Amazon, is a primary care tech provider. Amazon Clinic will initially operate in 32 states, with plans to expand in the future.
Amazon Care will be shutting down on December 31st.
Today's news was accidentally leaked by Amazon, who published a video on Tuesday last week about the Amazon Clinic program. It is not the first time that Amazon has launched a virtual healthcare service. On December 31st, that service will be shut down after it was expanded to service employees of external companies. Amazon senior vice president of health Neil Lindsay said at the time that it wasn't enough for large enterprise customers.
We will have to wait and see if Amazon Clinic is a complete enough solution, though better access to treatments for common ailments, especially on the scale that Amazon is capable of providing, could have benefits outside of those using the service. Reducing the burden on traditional in-person healthcare services could be achieved by using virtual healthcare offered by Amazon and others.
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