Amazon announced Amazon Clinic, a virtual healthcare service offering treatment for common conditions such as acne, allergies, and hair loss. The announcement comes months after the company moved to acquire telehealth provider One Medical for $3.9 billion in July. Though, the deal faced some regulatory scrutiny at the hands of the Federal Trade Commission. Here’s everything you need to know about Amazing expanding its presence in healthcare.
What does Amazon Clinic treat?
According to the company’s press release, Amazon Clinic provides telehealth virtual care for over 20 common conditions. These include dermal issues such as acne, rosacea, and eczema, as well as UTIs, yeast infections, and erectile dysfunction. The cost of care will vary between states.
The move to reenter the virtual healthcare market comes amid a wave of layoffs. CNN reports the company plans to let go of around 10,000 employees. The current layoffs are the largest in the company’s history and primarily impact tech employees. According to CNBC, If Amazon cuts the reported figure, it would only downsize its workforce by less than 1%.
Amazon’s newest virtual healthcare service will initially launch in 32 states. Unlike Amazon Pharmacy, the service will not work with insurance providers at launch. The insurance agency Florida Blue announced Amazon Pharmacy as their exclusive medication delivery provider. Notably, Amazon Pharmacy competes directly with billionaire investor Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Company.
However, One Medical doesn’t just provide virtual treatment. The company has physical locations across the United States. Although, there’s no word from Amazon if they’ll pursue brick-and-mortar healthcare clinics in addition to virtual services. Additionally, One Medical and Amazon Clinic remain separate services. Though, that could easily change once the e-commerce company completes its acquisition of the telehealth provider.
This is the second attempt from Amazon in healthcare.
The e-commerce giant launched Amazon Care in February. However, shortly after announcing the acquisition of One Medical, they announced the service would shut down at year’s end. Amazon Care only provided services to enrolled companies, which included Hilton, Silicon Labs, and TrueBlue. The newly announced virtual clinic expands its focus to the public market.
