On December 31, Amazon Care's telemedicine service would be discontinued, and the head of Amazon Health Services, Neil Lindsay, announced via corporate e-mail that the service had not become operational, citing Mr. Lindsay's words to CNBC.
The top manager explained that the decision to close the service had not been easy and had taken several months to make; he acknowledged that certain aspects of Amazon Care had been well received, but that the service had not been able to provide a sufficiently complete package of services to large corporate clients targeted, and had not been viable for the long term; however, the experience of the service had helped the company to understand what was expected of the medical unit and corporate clients and private consumers.
The Amazon Care service was launched in 2019, when it was a pilot program for staff at Seattle headquarters and the nearest units, which now includes emergency remote care, free video counselling, and paid calls by nurses to the home for vaccinations and testing.
The service was developed for several years, and in 2017, Amazon held a closed meeting in Seattle, which was attended by respected health professionals, followed by the hiring of several doctors and the opening of a pilot clinic with some staff. In February, Amazon Care offered services throughout the United States to both its employees and other companies, which seemed to have serious prospects for the service.
At the same time, the e-commerce giant does not stop working in the field of health care: in July, the company purchased, for $3.9 billion, the company One Medical, which specializes in primary health care, and Amazon is also developing solutions for medical diagnosis in the home, and this week it became known that the company had applied for the absorption of Signiphy Health, which provides health services at home.