Amazon shutting down Amazon Care at the end of the year

In a surprise move announced Aug. 24 in a memo to staff, Amazon Care will be no more come year’s end.

The news was first reported by GeekWire. The primary healthcare services business was created by Amazon to offer in-person and telehealth care services originally for its employees in 2019 before expanding to the public in certain cities. Earlier this year, Amazon Care expanded again, with plans to offer care services in 20 cities by the end of the year.

"One of the ways we’ve worked towards this vision for the past several years has been with our urgent and primary care service offering, Amazon Care," Neil Lindsay, Amazon Health Services senior vice president said in the email to Amazon Health Services employees, wrote in the memo obtained by Health Exec. "During that time, we’ve gathered and listened to extensive feedback from our enterprise customers and their employees, and evolved the service to continuously improve the experience for customers. However, despite these efforts, we’ve determined that Amazon Care isn’t the right long-term solution for our enterprise customers, and have decided that we will no longer offer Amazon Care after December 31, 2022. "

The move comes after Amazon announced it was acquiring One Medical, a membership-based primary care organization with both in-person and virtual services, for $3.9 billion. According to Amazon leadership, the Amazon Care model wasn’t working prior to the deal being announced with One Medical, GeekWire reported. Amazon is also reportedly in the mix of bidders to acquire Signify Health, a healthcare platform that creates value-based care payment programs. CVS Health is also among the bidders for Signify Health, which is valued at $4.7 billion. 

Amazon's healthcare ambitions have continued to grow over the past several years through both acquisitions and its ground-up offerings, such as Amazon Care. As the online retailer's footprint in the healthcare space continues to expand, fresh scrutiny has been ignited over its role in care services. For example, its planned acquisition of One Medical has come under fire by some lawmakers who say Amazon may be too big and cite concerns over monopoly behavior. 

The company said the decision comes after realizing Amazon Care did not offer complete enough services. 

“This decision wasn’t made lightly and only became clear after many months of careful consideration,” Lindsay said. “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.”

According to Amazon, the shutdown won’t impact other healthcare ventures from the e-commerce giant. Amazon also noted that Amazon Care employees will have the opportunity to join opportunity to join other parts of the Health Services organization or other Amazon teams.