Amazon launched its healthcare service, Amazon Care, to tens of thousands of the company’s Washington state employees and their families, who have been using the platform since September 2019. Due to its success and the tremendous growth in telehealth services over the past year, Amazon announced Amazon Care will soon be available to the rest of the country and any interested employer may join.
Amazon Care enables employees to connect with medical professionals in less than 60 seconds via an app, 24 hours a day. Ultimately, eliminating the wait and travel times individuals can experience when seeking medical attention in-person. The platform is made up of two components:
- Virtual Care — connects patients to medical professionals via the Amazon Care app (available for both Android and iOS) and allows patients to communicate with a nurse or doctor live quickly, conveniently, and confidently, via in-app messaging or videoconferencing; and
- In-Person Care — dispatches a medical professional to a patient’s home for additional care, ranging from routine blood draws to examining a patient’s lungs, and includes prescription delivery right to a patient’s door.
“By supplying Amazon Care as a workplace benefit, employers are investing in the health and well-being of arguably their most important asset — their employees,” Amazon said in a release. Through its primary and urgent care offerings, Amazon Care addresses a wide spectrum of patient needs such as:
- Annual vaccinations
- Health screenings
- COVID-19 and flu testing
- Prescription requests, refills, and delivery
- Nutrition and lifestyle advice
- Pre-pregnancy planning
- Sexual health
- Drug addiction support
- Treatment of illnesses and injuries
The program is secure, providing a HIPAA-compliant service that allows employees and their dependents to see the same dedicated teams of medical professionals. “We have developed the ability to treat chronic conditions…you can see the same provider, have a care team, so that the group of clinicians really gets to know you,” said Kristen Helton, Director of Amazon Care. This service is essential to creating long-term relationships that benefit a families’ overall health and well-being — especially when it pertains to recurring prescriptions, diagnosis, and treatment of chronic diseases.
This summer, the virtual services will be available to external companies and Amazon employees in all 50 states across the nation. Additionally, Amazon will be working to expand the in-person care offering to Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and other cities in the coming months. It is important to note that Amazon Care should be treated as a supplement to other healthcare coverage, such as an employer health plan.
Interested in learning more about Amazon’s telehealth service? You can do so by clicking here.