Reports: Amazon to Shut Down In-House Telehealth Service Following One Medical Acquisition

Amazon is planning to shutter its home-grown urgent and primary care offering, Amazon Care, following the July acquisition of the more advanced One Medical primary care business, multiple sources report.

The news was announced in an internal memo to employees from Neil Lindsay, SVP of Amazon Health Services and Amazon Stores, according to GeekWire. In the letter, Lindsay said that after months of deliberation it was decided that Amazon Care was not “the right long-term solution for our enterprise customers,” which is who the company was ultimately targeting with the service.

Amazon Care — which offers virtual urgent care, free telehealth consultations and in-home nurse visits for select services — debuted in 2019 as a pilot program for employees. Since that time the service has reportedly gathered a number of corporate customers including Hilton, TrueBlue and the Amazon-owned Whole Foods.

“Although our enrolled members have loved many aspects of Amazon Care, it is not a complete enough offering for the large enterprise customers we have been targeting, and wasn’t going to work long-term,” said Lindsay in the email.  

Amazon Care will end operations after Dec. 31, 2022, but the company isn’t abandoning its larger goal to disrupt the healthcare industry. In July, Amazon announced it would acquire national primary care technology solution One Medical, and just last week The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon was among the bidders vying for healthcare platform Signify Health, alongside CVS and UnitedHealthcare.

While Amazon Care will be out of commission in a few short months, Lindsay said the offering was important in helping the company understand “what’s needed long-term to deliver meaningful healthcare solutions for enterprise and individual customers.

“As we take our learnings from Amazon Care, we will continue to invent, learn from our customers and industry partners, and hold ourselves to the highest standards as we further help reimagine the future of healthcare,” Lindsay added.