Amazon is buying US healthcare provider One Medical for $3.9 billion, the companies announced Thursday, a big step for the online retail giant’s entry into the medical sector.
The giant company has steadily moved well beyond e-commerce, and announced earlier this year that it was expanding its telemedicine service nationwide across the United States.
“We believe healthcare is at the top of the list of experiences that need to be reinvented,” said Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services.
“We see many opportunities to both improve the quality of the experience and give people valuable time back in their lives,” he added.
One Medical, which has a network of primary care practices across the United States as well as telemedicine services, has grown to 767,000 members, according to its latest results.
“There is an immense opportunity to make the healthcare experience more accessible, affordable and even more enjoyable for patients,” said Amir Dan Rubin, CEO of One Medical.
The acquisition bolsters Amazon’s broader ambitions, which have expanded from its e-commerce origins to include streaming media, cloud computing, robotics, artificial intelligence, and groceries.
As with other big tech companies, its pervasiveness and size have drawn the attention of regulators and lawmakers concerned about things like privacy and fair competition.
– Amazon’s Deepening Health Boost –
Tech-world observers were quick to voice some unease about Amazon’s widespread involvement in people’s lives.
“I think it will be really helpful if my doctor can see my package order history and the food I get at Whole Foods before making any diagnoses,” tweeted Josh Elman, a Silicon Valley investor and product developer.
In the healthcare space, Amazon has already launched an online pharmacy for US consumers to order prescription drugs directly from their website or mobile app.
That came after Amazon acquired PillPack, an online pharmacy that offers pre-sorted dose packs and home delivery.
Buying One Medical also builds on Amazon’s announcement in February of expanding Amazon Care, which first launched in 2019 to give its employees access to doctors.
The service combines virtual doctor or nurse visits via an Amazon Care mobile app with personal care from medical staff who are sent to patients’ homes, the tech company said.
Like its telemedicine service, Amazon says it wants to develop a more modern healthcare offering that is increasingly responsive to today’s lifestyle, more personalized, and less time-consuming.
According to a July report by McKinsey & Company, the telemedicine industry skyrocketed amid coronavirus restrictions, and usage by Americans since then is about 38 times what it was before the pandemic.
At the same time, Americans tend to purchase health insurance through their work, so the current US hiring crisis has prompted employers to offer increasingly attractive benefits.
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