Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime membership program began with speedy shipping, then video streaming. The latest perk—discounted access to a virtual doctor—is being pitched as another win for customers: medical care delivered as seamlessly as tube socks and television shows.
But it’s a capitulation of sorts. Having spent almost a decade and billions of dollars trying to re-invent American health care, Amazon has settled on a decidedly traditional approach. The company runs doctors’ offices and pharmacies itself, offering Prime subscribers a $100 discount on memberships at One Medical, the concierge primary-care chain it acquired in February. In the highly regulated business of treating colds and dispensing pills, the strategy is a familiar one, albeit with some technology thrown in, and it disappointed industry observers who had hoped the company’s long-awaited entry into health care would mean radical breakthroughs.
Over the past eight years or so, Amazon has started and abandoned multiple health-care initiatives. Haven, a joint venture with Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. that sought lower corporate health insurance costs was shuttered after accomplishing little. Amazon Care, a telehealth service that promised virtual access to doctors in minutes, was abruptly closed last year just 17 months after it was widely launched. In July, the company axed a line of wearable health and wellness devices after they failed to catch on with consumers.
Today, Amazon mostly relies on a pair of pre-existing businesses—One Medical and PillPack, a mail-order pharmacy acquired in 2018. Both are well liked by patients but largely duplicate existing services and were unprofitable before Amazon bought them.
Fellow tech-industry behemoths such as Apple Inc. and Google parent Alphabet Inc. have also poured time, talent and billions of dollars into their own attempts to disrupt the famously entrenched health-care industry, with equally underwhelming results. Apple has started, delayed and abandoned multiple projects, including a glucose monitor and consumer health-care clinics. Google meanwhile has launched an array of initiatives such as glucose-measuring contact lenses and a platform for early heart-failure detection. None have significantly improved health-care offerings or outcomes for patients; all have been modified or scaled back.
To understand why Amazon hasn’t made more progress, Bloomberg interviewed dozens of current and former employees, patients, competitors and industry analysts who closely followed the company’s efforts to break into health care.
But it’s a capitulation of sorts. Having spent almost a decade and billions of dollars trying to re-invent American health care, Amazon has settled on a decidedly traditional approach. The company runs doctors’ offices and pharmacies itself, offering Prime subscribers a $100 discount on memberships at One Medical, the concierge primary-care chain it acquired in February. In the highly regulated business of treating colds and dispensing pills, the strategy is a familiar one, albeit with some technology thrown in, and it disappointed industry observers who had hoped the company’s long-awaited entry into health care would mean radical breakthroughs.
Over the past eight years or so, Amazon has started and abandoned multiple health-care initiatives. Haven, a joint venture with Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. that sought lower corporate health insurance costs was shuttered after accomplishing little. Amazon Care, a telehealth service that promised virtual access to doctors in minutes, was abruptly closed last year just 17 months after it was widely launched. In July, the company axed a line of wearable health and wellness devices after they failed to catch on with consumers.
Today, Amazon mostly relies on a pair of pre-existing businesses—One Medical and PillPack, a mail-order pharmacy acquired in 2018. Both are well liked by patients but largely duplicate existing services and were unprofitable before Amazon bought them.
Fellow tech-industry behemoths such as Apple Inc. and Google parent Alphabet Inc. have also poured time, talent and billions of dollars into their own attempts to disrupt the famously entrenched health-care industry, with equally underwhelming results. Apple has started, delayed and abandoned multiple projects, including a glucose monitor and consumer health-care clinics. Google meanwhile has launched an array of initiatives such as glucose-measuring contact lenses and a platform for early heart-failure detection. None have significantly improved health-care offerings or outcomes for patients; all have been modified or scaled back.
To understand why Amazon hasn’t made more progress, Bloomberg interviewed dozens of current and former employees, patients, competitors and industry analysts who closely followed the company’s efforts to break into health care.
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