New York, Aug. 25 (Usa): Amazon is shutting down the hybrid home care service it spent years developing, a surprising move that underscores the challenges it faces as it transitions into healthcare, according to the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The service, called Amazon Care, will end by December 31, according to an email that Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services, sent to employees.
Amazon Care was launched in 2019 for employees of the state of Amazon in Washington state in Seattle, who served as beta users before the company made it available last year to its workers in all 50 states.
The service connects nearly patients with doctors and nurses who can provide treatment 24 hours a day. It has no physical locations, but does provide in-person services for things like vaccines and flu testing in many cities, including Seattle and Washington, DC.
Amazon’s decision to pull the Amazon Care plug is all the more surprising given that the company said in February that it plans to expand the personal care service to an additional 20 cities. Last summer, Amazon also began offering the service to private sector employers across the country.
In the email sent to employees, Lindsay wrote that Amazon listened to employer feedback and worked to improve Amazon Care.
“However, despite these efforts, we have determined that Amazon Care is not an appropriate long-term solution for our enterprise customers,” Lindsay wrote.
He added that AmazonCare “is not a complete enough offering for the large enterprise customers we were targeting, and it won’t work in the long term.”
An Amazon spokesperson declined to say how many people will lose their jobs due to the Amazon Care shutdown.
AmazonCare isn’t the company’s first failed health effort. The tech and retail giant was also part of a short-term collaboration with JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway to improve healthcare costs. The three giants formed an independent company called Haven to focus on improving care and expense management, but it dissolved last year.
Despite the setbacks, Amazon has not backed away from its focus on healthcare. Last month, it announced plans to spend $3.9 billion to buy Primary Care One Medical, a membership-based service that offers virtual care as well as in-person visits. As of March, One Medical had approximately 767,000 members and 188 medical offices in 25 markets.
Given that Amazon is now investing in other areas of health, Neil Saunders, managing director at GlobalData Retail, said it’s taking a more aggressive stance on exciting things that don’t deliver.
“The shutdown underscores how difficult it is to make progress in the health market,” Saunders said. “It serves as a warning that even with acquisitions, Amazon’s attempt to change the sector will be very difficult and potentially costly.”
AOQ