Amazon to offer telehealth services to other companies

Amazon.com is expanding digital medical consultations to its employees across the U.S. and says it will start offering the service to other companies.

Together with the launch of an online pharmacy in December, the initiative marks Amazon’s entry into the gargantuan U.S. health care industry. Medical services have long been seen as a target for Amazon, both to reduce the costs of caring for the e-commerce giant’s fast-growing workforce and as a potential source of revenue in an area that some say is ripe for digital transformation.

Amazon Care started in 2019 as a pilot for employees in and around the company’s Seattle headquarters, offering virtual and, in some cases, in-person medical services. As of Wednesday, Amazon started offering the program to other Washington-based companies, Amazon said in a blog post. Beginning this summer, the company will expand Amazon Care to the rest of its workers in the U.S., as well as other companies.

“Extending care to other companies as a workplace benefit is a necessary part of Amazon’s quest to expand in health care, and it may be an early sign that it intends to develop related services over time,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Poonam Goyal said in a note. “It will also help Amazon compete indirectly against retail clinics, where rivals like Walmart, Target, Kroger, CVS and Walgreens are expanding.”

Amazon has various health care initiatives under way. Late last year, the company launched online pharmacy services in the U.S. under its own brand, building on PillPack, a mail-distribution pharmacy Amazon had acquired. The company also sells office equipment and some medical supplies to hospitals and clinics through its Amazon Business commercial sales program.