Amazon, the company that revolutionized retailing, took a step Thursday toward possibly revolutionizing healthcare as well. The retail giant announced a $3.9 billion deal to buy One Medical Care, a human-centered, technology-powered primary care firm. One Medical Care offers services in-person, digitally and virtually.
Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services, said in a statement the healthcare industry is ripe for reinvention and the Seattle-based company wants to lead the way.
“Booking an appointment, waiting weeks or even months to be seen, taking time off work, driving to a clinic, finding a parking spot, waiting in the waiting room then the exam room for what is too often a rushed few minutes with a doctor, then making another trip to a pharmacy — we see lots of opportunity to both improve the quality of the experience and give people back valuable time in their days,” Lindsay said.
Amazon has been aggressively pursuing a space for itself in healthcare for the past few years. In 2018 the company got into retail pharmacy with the purchase of PillPack for more than $750 million. Last year, the company rolled out app-based Amazon Care, a telehealth service, to employees in all 50 states.
The acquisition of One Medical Care could be a potential game-changer for the company. One Medical offers primary care, chronic care, wellness, emergency department services and behavioral health in a bundled plan for $199 annual fee.
Tom Lillis, a partner with healthcare mergers and acquisitions advisory firm Stoneridge Partners, told McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse the deal holds tremendous potential for a company that has made its mark pushing products and services into the home.
“The scope of this isn’t new, but bundling all of these services nationally under a $199 annual fee is,” Lillis explained. “There are many more questions than answers now regarding the many different directions Amazon could go with this company.”
Still, Amazon is trying to carve out a niche for itself in a space that is already dominated by very large national players that could have a competitive advantage.
“Companies like CVS, Humana, UnitedHealth and Walgreens are all seeking to enter the primary care services space more meaningfully in the coming years, and we would expect at least some of those players to have similar digital capabilities and perhaps even better brand recognition in health/wellness than Amazon,” Morningstar healthcare analyst Julie Utterback told McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse. “It will be interesting to see it all play out.”
Amazon did not offer guidance on when it expects the One Medical Care deal to close.
