Author: John Baker
Amazon Care, the virtual & in-person healthcare service Amazon distributes is closing down; given the company’s recent history with other healthcare projects, it seems the Amazon board is reconsidering its entry into the healthcare space.
Why is Amazon Health Shutting Down?
In 2019, Amazon developed the said service to attend to the needs of its Seattle-based employees. The workers initially filled in as trial users before the service was made available across America.
The virtual Med-care service joins users with nurses and doctors on standby 24/7 to provide health care services.
The medical service does not have physical locations but delivers in-person assistance for requests like flu testing and vaccinations.
The decision to end its Amazon Care line comes as a surprise – given that the company announced earlier in February, that it plans to extend the in-person service to cover an additional 20 locations in America.
According to an employee, the service had to close up because customers aren’t recognizing the value of the service.
“The first layoff wave is due in October, and we’ve been informed that dozens will be fired,” he stated.
Amazon Care is not their only unsuccessful healthcare effort. The retail goliath was formerly engaged in a deal with JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway to confront medical expenses globally.
Together they created Haven: an independent company – to focus on managing costs and improving health care accessibility around the world. Unfortunately, Haven was discontinued in February to give the Wall Street giants enough time to restructure their entry plan.
Why is Amazon Care packing up?
Almost four years after building the service that combined telemedicine and in-person services, Amazon has chosen to cancel this product – citing complications with company goals and Amazon Care.
In an email sent to Amazon care workers, Senior Vice President Neil Linsday said the company had paid attention to employee opinions and was acting to develop the Amazon Care service. “Despite all our efforts, the Amazon board has agreed that the Amazon Care service won’t be viable for the long-term agenda involving its enterprise customers,” Linsday said.
Amazon’s decision to forego Amazon Care seems like a fulfilled prediction for analysts who believed the healthcare business was too complicated to conquer for a company like Amazon.
He also said that Amazon Care was “not the right product for enterprise customers that Amazon sells to” also saying the structure “wasn’t going to function in the grand scheme for our growth.”
The Amazon delegate present refused to disclose the number of workers that would be laid off as the outcome of the Amazon care shutdown.
“The end of Amazon care is coming, but we guarantee our customers that this conclusion will not impact additional Amazon services outside of Amazon Care and its registered Medical care teams,” the delegate said.
Conclusion
Up until now, Amazon was considered the non-medical outfit to revolutionize the medical industry. But with what happened recently, it is clear the company is not ready to walk that path yet.